ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the structure of the model, and specifically shows how Excel can be used as an interface for a complex microsimulation model written in a more powerful language. It shows how a complex microsimulation model designed to model elaborate rules like electricity tariffs can be implemented in a powerful programming language, but then presented to the end-user in a form they are familiar with. Excel was only used as an interface to the model because the programming language for Excel (VBA) was not powerful enough to model the complex rules. Therefore, the programming language SAS was used as a back-end to the model with Excel as the front end passing the parameters to SAS. The microsimulation model developed by NATSEM for the Independent Pricing and Review Tribunal (IPART) in New South Wales, Australia, uses survey data from IPART, and applies complex rules to these data to model electricity pricing.
