Energy modeling for policy studies

Energy policy modeling owes a great debt to the disciplines of operations research. Valuable modeling tools were available when the energy crisis struck unexpectedly. In turn, the immediate response to problem-driven policy modeling produced methodological challenges and innovations that have application outside the domain of energy. The early days of the explosive growth of energy modeling for policy studies provide illustrations of the interaction of problem identification, model formulation, problem analysis, and policy implementation in the tradition of operations research.