Retail pre-production release

5MS Retail capabilities were deployed into pre-production in the afternoon of 14 April, ahead of schedule. Participants can access this environment from 15 April (instead of the planned 19 April) to commence industry testing.

The Participant testing web page will contain instructions for connecting to this environment.

However, participants who already have access to pre-production can log into the web portal and new API service using their existing username and password.

Note: Industry Invitation Testing will commence as planned on 19 April 2021.

If a participant does not currently have access to AEMO’s pre-production environment, or does not know their password, they should contact their organisation’s MSATS Participant Administrator.

The Retail solution in pre-production will reflect the functionality that will go-live on 31 May 2021 (30-min settlement with 5-min reads supported). Key changes include:

• New API Push and Pull protocols to submit and receive B2M transactions (CATS, NMID, MDMT) 
• Access MSATS Browser via market portal 
• Updated MSATS Browser enquiry screens (metering data) 
• Acceptance of MTRD Meter Data Notification transactions for the purpose of Market Settlements 
• Updated and new MSATS reports that reference the new meter data source system 
• Receive and validate load meter reads in 5/15/30 mins resolution 
• Rolling up of 5- or 15-mins interval reads to 30-min for the purpose of Market Settlements 
• MTRD file size increases up to 10MB or 1000 transactions for B2B and B2M message exchange 
• Standing data and CR support for TNI2, Quality and Quantity levels, New NMI Classification codes, New Datastream Type (MITC). 

• New aseXML Schema r39_p1 available

Refer to the MSATS technical specification for 46.98 for further details. For a full list of the 5MS capabilities that will be available in AEMO’s pre-production environment, refer to Functional Deployment Matrix .

This data was refreshed from the production environment as at 11 December 2020.

It is an opportunity for participants to test their organisation’s changes with AEMO’s market system changes in readiness for the production release on 31 May 2021, and 5MS industry rule commencement on 1 October 2021.

No, AEMO does not co-ordinate industry testing activities as this is a participant led activity that can take place at any time once the functionality is available in the pre-production environment.

However, AEMO will coordinate Invitation Testing with a subset of participants. This phase of testing has been organised through the Industry Testing Working Group. Regular updates on Invitation Testing will be provided to the Readiness Working Group (RWG), Systems Working Group (SWG) and Industry Testing Working Group (ITWG).

Support for the pre-production environment is available during business hours and will be provided through AEMO’s Support Hub:

1. Online: https://www.aemo.com.au/Contact-us.
2. Phone: 1300 236 600

While there are no Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for the pre-production environment, AEMO will make best efforts to respond as soon as possible.

The cut-over for the Retail system is a complex process that will take some time to execute. In preparation, AEMO will commence some activities, including the data migration, ahead of time. 

During the cut-over process there will be an outage in:

• MSTATS pre-production environment from 10 to 16 April 2021. This will not impact AEMO’s production environment, or the Wholesale pre-production environment.
• B2M and B2B. However, the exact timing of this outage is yet to be confirmed.

System performance in pre-production is not guaranteed and may not be as good as the performance in production. However, Support Hub will be available to assist participants with any issues relating to this environment.

All issues and defects will be raised by Support Hub who will triage and address them according to their priority. The 5MS program will send the Readiness Working Group (RWG), Systems Working Group (SWG) and Industry Testing Working Group (ITWG) an email eachFriday detailing any known issues or defects during that week.