OR modelling for a deregulated electricity sector

OR’s role in the New Zealand electricity sector has changed as the institutional structure has changed, and the paper might expect to find similar changes as the process of deregulation affects various sectors around the world. One result has been an increased demand for Operational Research OR skills to perfrom familiar functions, such as cost minimization, as more decision-makers become involved, and are given the incentives and the responsibility to optimize aspects which may have been ignored in the past. But there has also been a significant demand for Operational Research OR to contribute to policy analyses, and to develop new approaches to facilitate the operation of the market in such a way as to give all parties incentives to optimize their own operations, and to provide those operating in the market with the tools they need to understand it, and to optimize their own interaction with it.