[ARCHIVE] Multiple participant IDs for energy retailers

Question

It is not always possible to identify the participant_ID under which data is being requested during authentication.

When submitting requests for data to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), participants must supply participant_ID in the API call header. This value is then used to verify the requesting party’s right to access data specific to that participant_ID.

As there is currently no provision for the retailer to provide a participant_ID in the header for API calls to secondary data holders, can this be addressed by the Consumer Data Standards? 

Answer

If the AEMO requires retailers to supply a header (or anything else for authentication) then that is up to AEMO to document and communicate. The security profile that a retailer uses to identify themselves to the AEMO is for the AEMO to decide using the eHub standards.  

The Consumer Data Standards (CDS) have delegated this to the AEMO. For multiple participant_IDs, the CDS include the following explicit statement, applicable to energy retailers:

"Some primary Data Holders may interact with the AEMO using multiple participant_IDs. For these Data Holders it is possible that a single request from a CDR consumer covering multiple National Meter Identifiers (NMIs) would require multiple calls to AEMO if the NMIs were associated with multiple participant_IDs owned by the Data Holder. In this scenario, the retailer MUST call the AEMO multiple times and aggregate the results before responding to the Data Recipient".