AEMO <-> MQTT Parser/Connector

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) publishes 5 minute settlement data for the National Electricity Market (NEM) in a JSON file located at https://visualisations.aemo.com.au/aemo/apps/api/report/ELEC_NEM_SUMMARY

This JSON file includes price and generation/demand data useful for making/scripting demand management decisions.

Usage

./aemo -?
AEMO <-> MQTT Connector
Usage: aemo region [options]

Regions: NSW1, QLD1, SA1, TAS1, VIC1

Options:
	-l <filename>    Log to file
	-m <broker URI>  Log to MQTT Broker
	-t <topic>       MQTT topic
	-u <username>    Username for MQTT Broker
	-p <password>    Password for MQTT Broker

Log File Format

The log will have the following format:

[local time],[number of tries],[settlement time],[price],[total demand],[net interchange],[scheduled generation],[semi scheduled generation]

e.g. 2022-02-21 17:20:22,1,2022-02-22 11:25:00,-38.47,604.96,59.80,80.00,580.52

Local Time: 2022-02-21 17:20:22
Number of Tries: 1
Settlement Time: 2022-02-22 11:25:00
Price: -38.47 (Dollars)
Total Demand: 604.96 (MW)
Net Interchange: 59.80 (MW) - Power being imported/exported from region via interconnector(s)
Scheduled Generation: 80.00 (MW) - Typically baseload fossil fuel
Semi Scheduled Generation: 580.52 (MW) - Typically variable renewable energy

Dependencies

This code uses the following libraries

• cURL (https://curl.haxx.se/)
  • Requires OpenSSL for https support (https://www.openssl.org/)
• cJSON (https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON)
• Eclipse paho MQTT library (https://www.eclipse.org/paho/)
  • Requires OpenSSL

Install using package manager:

sudo apt-get install libpaho-mqtt-dev libcurlpp-dev libcjson-dev

Or build from code:

Install OpenSSL

$ wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.1.1m.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf openssl-1.1.1m.tar.gz
$ cd openssl-1.1.1m/
$ ./config
$ make
$ sudo make install

Install cURL

$ wget https://curl.se/download/curl-7.81.0.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf curl-7.81.0.tar.gz
$ cd curl-7.81.0
$ ./configure --with-openssl
$ make
$ sudo make install

Install cJSON

$ wget https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON/archive/refs/tags/v1.7.15.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf v1.7.15.tar.gz
$ cd cJSON-1.7.15
$ make
$ sudo make install

Install paho libraries

$ wget https://github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.c/archive/refs/tags/v1.3.9.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf v1.3.9.tar.gz
$ cd paho.mqtt.c-1.3.9
$ make
$ sudo make install

Potential errors

Error loading shared libraries

If you get the following error message

error while loading shared libraries: libcjson.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

execute

$ sudo ldconfig -v

Unsupported protocol

If you get this message

curl_easy_perform() failed: Unsupported protocol

It may be because curl hasn't been compiled with SSL. Run

$ curl -V

and check if https is listed as a protocol. If not, you may not have OpenSSL installed correctly.