INSTRUCTIONTYPE

Dispatch instruction (GD instruct) has types and subtypes. INSTRUCTIONTYPE, together with INSTRUCTIONSUBTYPE, sets out valid instruction types.

INSTRUCTIONTYPE data is public to all participants.

Source

INSTRUCTIONTYPE shows ad hoc updates to market configuration.

Column Schema

INSTRUCTIONTYPEID

Dispatch instruction type for example FCAS service.

SQL Type: VARCHAR2(10) Polars Type: str

This column is mandatory, and a primary key.

Examples:

AS_FC
AS_LS
AS_RGUL
AS_RGUU
AS_RP
GENERAL
NC
RTC
SD

DESCRIPTION

Description of instruction type

SQL Type: VARCHAR2(64) Polars Type: str

This column is not mandatory.

Examples:

Ancillary Services Frequency Control
Ancillary Services Load Shedding
Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Loading
Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Unloading
Ancillary Services Reactive Power
General
Non-Conform
Reserve Trader Contracts
Security/Direction

LASTCHANGED

Last date and time record changed

For more information, see the dedicated documentation page.

SQL Type: DATE Polars Type: pl.Datetime()

This column is not mandatory.

Example: 1999/04/20 14:56:06

REGIONID

Region id if regional instruction only.

For more information, see the dedicated documentation page.

The SQL type is VARCHAR2(10). This is actually a factor/enum, with values:

QLD1
VIC1
TAS1
NSW1
SA1
SNOWY1

This column is not mandatory.

New Data Timing

Ad hoc

Code Examples

Polars

Casting is enums, categoricals etc is not essential, but may speed up parsing. Swapping int for pl.UInt16, pl.Int32 would also speed up parsing. However some of the datatypes are inferred, so they may be wrong.

This code deduplicates for you. Deduplication is normally only required across multiple months.

This code assumes that all columns are present, which may not be true for older files.

import polars as pl
import polars.selectors as cs

# e.g. "2029/03/15 00:05:00"
dt_s_fmt = "%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S"

csv_paths = ["SOMEFILE.CSV", "OTHERFILE.CSV"]

lf = (
    pl.concat(
        [
            pl.scan_csv(
                csv_path,  # must be unzipped beforehand
                skip_rows=1,  # skip the header
                infer_schema=False,  # much faster
            )
            .filter(cs.by_index(0) == "D")  # drop the footer
            .select(~cs.by_index(range(4)))  # drop metadata columns
            for csv_path in csv_paths
        ],
        how="diagonal_relaxed",
    )
    .with_columns(
        pl.col("LASTCHANGED").str.strptime(pl.Datetime, dt_s_fmt),
    )
    .cast(
        {
            "INSTRUCTIONTYPEID": str,
            "DESCRIPTION": str,
            "REGIONID": pl.Enum(["QLD1", "VIC1", "TAS1", "NSW1", "SA1", "SNOWY1"]),
        }
    )
    # Deduplicate
    # We want one row per ['INSTRUCTIONTYPEID']
    # Tie-breaker: greatest value of ['LASTCHANGED']
    .sort(["LASTCHANGED"], descending=False)
    .unique(subset=["INSTRUCTIONTYPEID"], keep="last")
)

Nemosis

This table is not yet available in Nemosis.

Example File

From PUBLIC_ARCHIVE_INSTRUCTIONTYPE_FILE01_202609010000.zip

Table without MetadataTable with MetadataRaw Text without Metadata

INSTRUCTIONTYPEID	DESCRIPTION	REGIONID	LASTCHANGED
AS_RGUL	Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Loading		1999/04/20 14:56:06
SD	Security/Direction		1999/04/20 14:56:06
NC	Non-Conform		1999/04/20 14:56:06
GENERAL	General		1999/04/20 14:56:06
RTC	Reserve Trader Contracts		1999/04/20 14:56:06
AS_FC	Ancillary Services Frequency Control		1999/04/20 14:56:06
AS_RP	Ancillary Services Reactive Power		1999/04/20 14:56:06
AS_RGUU	Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Unloading		1999/04/20 14:56:06
AS_LS	Ancillary Services Load Shedding		1999/04/20 14:56:06

C	SETP.WORLD	DVD_INSTRUCTIONTYPE	AEMO	PUBLIC	2026/10/09	15:37:02	001791524222871	MONTHLY_ARCHIVE	001791524222871
I	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	INSTRUCTIONTYPEID	DESCRIPTION	REGIONID	LASTCHANGED
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	AS_RGUL	Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Loading		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	SD	Security/Direction		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	NC	Non-Conform		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	GENERAL	General		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	RTC	Reserve Trader Contracts		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	AS_FC	Ancillary Services Frequency Control		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	AS_RP	Ancillary Services Reactive Power		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	AS_RGUU	Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Unloading		1999/04/20 14:56:06
D	GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1	AS_LS	Ancillary Services Load Shedding		1999/04/20 14:56:06
C	END OF REPORT	12

INSTRUCTIONTYPEID,DESCRIPTION,REGIONID,LASTCHANGED
AS_RGUL,"Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Loading",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
SD,Security/Direction,,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
NC,Non-Conform,,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
GENERAL,General,,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
RTC,"Reserve Trader Contracts",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
AS_FC,"Ancillary Services Frequency Control",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
AS_RP,"Ancillary Services Reactive Power",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
AS_RGUU,"Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Unloading",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
AS_LS,"Ancillary Services Load Shedding",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"

Raw Text with Metadata

C,SETP.WORLD,DVD_INSTRUCTIONTYPE,AEMO,PUBLIC,2026/10/09,15:37:02,001791524222871,MONTHLY_ARCHIVE,001791524222871
I,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,INSTRUCTIONTYPEID,DESCRIPTION,REGIONID,LASTCHANGED
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,AS_RGUL,"Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Loading",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,SD,Security/Direction,,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,NC,Non-Conform,,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,GENERAL,General,,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,RTC,"Reserve Trader Contracts",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,AS_FC,"Ancillary Services Frequency Control",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,AS_RP,"Ancillary Services Reactive Power",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,AS_RGUU,"Ancillary Services Rapid Generator Unit Unloading",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,AS_LS,"Ancillary Services Load Shedding",,"1999/04/20 14:56:06"
C,"END OF REPORT",12

Availability

Visibility: Public

This table is in the public monthly MMSDM archive.

I have collated the list of all those files into one place, in this CSV metadata file. (Columns year, month, url, compressed_size in bytes).

The earliest available data is month 1 of 2015. The most recent available data is month 9 of 2026.

Every month in between has a file. (No gaps.)

Data Size

Each year of data is approximately 7 KB when zipped, 69 KB as unzipped CSV.

Deduplication and PDR Loader Configuration

The primary keys are:

INSTRUCTIONTYPEID

The transaction type is "INSERT-UPDATE", which means that you will likely see duplicate data with different values.

You should deduplicate by sorting based on LASTCHANGED, within each group of primary keys.

PDR Loader configuration is:

Report Name	Report Subtype	Version
GD_INSTRUCT	INSTRUCTIONTYPE	1

This means that the CSV files start with metadata columns:

I,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,...
D,GD_INSTRUCT,INSTRUCTIONTYPE,1,...

ROW_FILTER_TYPE is LASTCHANGED

Indexes

LASTCHANGED

Links

This page as JSON (schema documented here, but may change)

Download a JSON Schema specification for this table.

Official AEMO schema documentation

Other Information

Package: GD_INSTRUCT