Pre-Production FAQs

AEMO has established a Regulatory Implementation Roadmap Forum and is consulting on proposed changes needed as a result of the three-month deferral of 5MS and GS to the regulatory roadmap that was established earlier in the year.

The pre-production environment for each component of the Wholesale and Retail streams will reflect the upcoming mode of operation for that component.

The 5MS Functional Deployment Matrix will indicate when MSATS, Settlements and Bidding/Dispatch will be in 30-minute state, five-minute state, and subsequently Global Settlement state where applicable.  

Market Trial will consist of the coordinated multi-party end-to-end testing of business process scenarios. The development of these scenarios will be led by AEMO. 

Industry testing refers to a participants self- testing functionality such as connectivity and/or a participant coordinating multi-party testing of functional scenarios with other participants using the AEMO environments.  

Industry testing can take place any time once the functionality is available in the selected environment whereas Market Trials will be scheduled for specific times.  

The strategy for each capability release has been developed in consultation with Industry and is documented in the Industry Test and Market Trial Strategy.

Support will be provided to participants preparing for Industry Testing through the ITWG and Support Hub. 

Any issues encountered while testing in the 5MS Staging Environment can be emailed to 5MS or the AEMO Support Hub and will be investigated on a best endeavour basis.

The scenarios for the 5MS and GS Market Trials will be developed in consultation with the ITWG. Engagement for the 5MS Capability Market Trial will begin in February 2021 and the plan will be finalised in May 2021. Engagement for the GS Market Trial will begin in September 2021 and the plan will be finalised in December 2021.

Participation in Market Trial is not mandatory. However, we strongly encourage all participants to participate in Market Trial as it is an opportunity to test their systems and process prior to a major market change which will aid in mitigating cutover and go-live risk.  

Yes, once functionality is deployed into the pre-production environment it remains there and will be available during the transitional period prior to the commencement of 5MS and Global Settlements. 

Due to the three-month deferral, AEMO is currently reviewing if the 5MS Staging Environment should be extended to cover the transitional period. This will be discussed with the ITWG and RWG. 

AEMO will publish when the changes are available in the 5MS Staging or pre-prod environments so a participant can commence testing whenever they are ready.  The release notes will also indicate what a participant can functionally test outside of a market trial and what testing will be done as part of the market trial.  

Participation in industry testing and market trials is voluntary.   The capability is available for participant testing in the pre-prod environment in the lead up to the production deployments and remains in pre-prod post deployment.   Participants are also able to test their capability in the 5MS Staging Environment. 

Yes, the pre-prod environment is available during the Market Trial period, however, where participants are testing defined scenarios consideration should be given to not impacting those scenarios being run through the Market Trial.  Participants who choose to take part in market trials will have the ability to select which of the test offered they want to execute, they can do some or all of the tests and AEMO will coordinate pairing with other participants to enable end to end testing to be completed.    

This information is available in the 5MS Functional Deployment Matrix.  

Yes, B2B testing can take place in the pre-prod environment. B2B testing will not be coordinated by AEMO.  

AEMO will also deploy eHub into the 5MS Staging Environment to support B2B testing between participants. This will be available from 31 August 2020. 

No. Participants that wish to engage in B2B testing should coordinate bilateral testing with other participants independently of AEMO. 

We have left a few days between the milestones for completing Industry Testing and the AEMO go-live milestones (i.e. MDM, Settlements and Dispatch) to allow for cutover activities for AEMO and those participants that will cutover at that time.  

Existing participants can use their staging environment certificate for the pre-production environment to access APIs or FTPs. URL details for the API Portal is: https://dev.preprod.aemo.com.au/
New participants will need to arrange an API certificate by contacting AEMO Support Hub on

• Phone: 1300 236 600, or 
• Online: https://www.aemo.com.au/Contact-us (preferred).