> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.axle.energy/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Retrieving meter details

> Identifying user MPANs and their eligibility

To participate in a market, we need to know the [MPAN](https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/meters/new?fuel_type=electricity) of the user's meter. This is the primary identifier that actors within the electricity system use to identify a consumer of electricity. We can typically retrieve this from
the user's address, and we provide tooling for you to do this.

<Note>
  If you are looking to collect better address data, see [Collecting and
  validating addresses](collecting-addresses).
</Note>

We'll help you retrieve the meter details for an address, including the eligible markets for that meter.

<Accordion title="Import vs Export MPANs">
  Sites with an export meter will have two MPANs: one for import and one for
  export. We index sites by the import MPAN, and you can use the import MPAN
  to retrieve the meter details.
</Accordion>

# Retrieving the MPAN

## Quick lookup

Use the [MPAN lookup endpoint](../api-reference/meter/get-by-address) to retrieve the MPAN for a given address. If we can find a single unambiguous MPAN, we'll return it.

<Note>
  If we cannot unambiguously identify the meter at the provided address, this
  endpoint will return `202` or `422`. In this case, you should use the
  exhaustive lookup.
</Note>

## Exhaustive lookup

If you'd like finer-grained control over the lookup, you can use a multistep process to retrieve partially matching
addresses, identify the best match, and then retrieve the relevant meter details.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Retrieve a list of matching addresses">
    Use the [search meters](../api-reference/meter/search) endpoint to search by `postcode`.
    This returns a list of possible address matches.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Identify the best match">
    Let the user select their address from the list, for example via a dropdown or scrollable UI element.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Retrieve the meter details for your chosen address">
    Pass the `ref` from their chosen address to the [meter info by ref](../api-reference/meter/get-by-ref) endpoint
    to retrieve the meter details.
  </Step>
</Steps>

# Understanding market eligibility

Different sites are eligible for different flexibility markets.

When you retrieve the meter details for a site, we return supplemental data about that meter. These include the
markets that the site is eligible for.

You can also retrieve these for known MPANs using the [meter info](../api-reference/meter/get-by-mpan) endpoint.