Settlement

Overview

Settlement is the financial heart of the NEM. AEMO calculates and publishes settlement statements that determine how much each market participant owes or is owed for their energy purchases and sales in each 30-minute trading interval. Energy Copilot automates the ingestion, reconciliation, and true-up analysis of settlement statements across all six settlement runs.

Settlement Runs

                    T+2BD           T+18BD      T+3M    T+6M    T+9M    T+12M
                       │               │          │       │       │        │
Trading Day ──────────►│               │          │       │       │        │
                    PRELIM           FINAL        R1      R2      R3       R4
                    (estimate)     (metering)   (rev 1) (rev 2) (rev 3) (final)

Run	Key Changes from Prior Run
PRELIM → FINAL	All actual metering data included, provisional data removed
FINAL → R1	Metering corrections, late submissions, disputes resolved
R1 → R2	Further metering corrections, billing corrections
R2 → R3	FCAS true-up adjustments, market fee revisions
R3 → R4	Final corrections, closes settlement permanently

True-Up Analysis

The true-up measures the financial impact of each settlement revision:

True_Up = Settlement_Amount_Run_N - Settlement_Amount_Run_(N-1)

A positive true-up means you receive more money in the revised run (favourable). A negative true-up means you owe more (adverse).

-- True-up analysis: PRELIM vs FINAL for a trading month
SELECT
    trading_date,
    region_id,
    participant_id,
    prelim_settlement_aud,
    final_settlement_aud,
    (final_settlement_aud - prelim_settlement_aud) AS true_up_aud,
    ROUND((final_settlement_aud - prelim_settlement_aud) / ABS(prelim_settlement_aud) * 100, 2) AS true_up_pct
FROM energy_copilot.gold.settlement_true_up
WHERE settlement_month = '2025-02'
  AND participant_id = 'YOUR_PARTICIPANT'
ORDER BY ABS(true_up_aud) DESC;

Settlement Dashboard

Settlement Summary (/back-office/settlement/summary)

• Current period settlement balance by run
• True-up waterfall: from PRELIM to latest run
• Monthly settlement trend: last 12 months
• Upcoming settlement milestones calendar

Screenshot: Settlement summary showing PRELIM vs FINAL comparison with true-up bars by region.

Settlement Reconciliation (/back-office/settlement/reconcile)

Line-by-line reconciliation of AEMO settlement statements against internal trade records:

Column	Description
Trading Interval	30-minute interval
AEMO Settlement	Amount from AEMO statement
Internal Calc	Amount from internal position records
Difference	AEMO minus Internal
Status	Matched / Tolerance / Investigate
Dispute Flag	Flagged for dispute if difference > threshold

Dispute Management (/back-office/settlement/disputes)

When reconciliation identifies a material difference (default threshold: $1,000 or 0.5% of settlement amount):

1. The interval is flagged as a potential dispute
2. The platform generates a dispute evidence pack: relevant metering data, offer data, and AEMO statement extract
3. The dispute is tracked through to resolution with notes and status

Prudential Management

Market participants must lodge a prudential deposit with AEMO based on their expected credit exposure. Energy Copilot tracks:

• Current prudential deposit: amount held with AEMO
• Credit support requirement: AEMO’s calculated requirement based on 14-day forward exposure
• Buffer: current deposit minus requirement
• Alert: if buffer falls below 20%, the platform alerts the settlements team

GET /api/settlement/prudential

# Response
{
  "participant_id": "MYENERGY",
  "prudential_deposit_aud": 15000000,
  "credit_support_requirement_aud": 12400000,
  "buffer_aud": 2600000,
  "buffer_pct": 17.3,
  "alert": true,
  "alert_message": "Buffer below 20% threshold. Consider lodging additional prudential."
}

GL Journal Generation

After each settlement run, the platform can generate GL journal entries in a configurable format:

DR  Market Settlement Payable     $1,234,567
    CR  Cash / Bank                          $1,234,567
    Memo: NEM Settlement - March 2025 FINAL Run
    Cost Centre: Trading Desk NSW

The journal generation is configurable:

• Chart of accounts mapping (settlement component → GL account)
• Cost centre allocation by region or portfolio
• GST treatment (energy settlements are GST-free; ancillary services vary)
• Journal approval workflow before posting

API Endpoints

# Settlement statements by run
GET /api/settlement/statements?period=2025-03&run=FINAL

# True-up analysis
GET /api/settlement/true-up?period=2025-02&compare=PRELIM,FINAL

# Prudential status
GET /api/settlement/prudential

# Generate GL journals
POST /api/settlement/journals
{
  "period": "2025-03",
  "run": "FINAL",
  "gl_format": "xero"  // or "sap", "myob", "csv"
}

# Dispute register
GET /api/settlement/disputes?status=open

Note

AEMO settlement data is ingested by pipelines/13_nemweb_bronze_to_gold.py and additional pipelines. Settlement statements are published by AEMO in the NEMWEB portal and downloaded to bronze.raw_settlement_statements.

Tip

The AI Copilot has a get_settlement_summary tool that can retrieve settlement data and explain true-up movements. Ask: “What is our PRELIM to FINAL true-up for February 2025 and what drove the difference?”