About Us

Determine Solutions Ltd. is the limited liability company for Peter Kelly and associated consultants.

Qualifications and experience

Peter holds a LLB (Hons) degree from Victoria University of Wellington, and a Master of Management degree, awarded with distinction, with the research component entitled "Collaborative governance in the Western Australia wholesale electricity market". Peter was an electoral official for five years from 2000-2004, and then moved into contracted project management, consulting, and business advisory roles. Employed by Catalyst IT in 2009, he was their Legal Manager for a number of years, employing a solicitor and clerk to provide in-house commercial and corporate advice. Peter then joined the Dentons Kensington Swan corporate and commercial team, initially as a Legal Advisor, before moving to the bar in 2023. 

As a barrister

Peter's work as a barrister has included:

• writing opinions on commercial disputes

• commercial proceedings in the High Court

• trust proceedings in the High Court

• trust, family property, and maintenance proceedings in the Family Court

• appearances in High Court judicial review proceedings, including relating to:

  • treaty settlement processes

  • the Resource Management Act 1991

  • the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003

• appearances in the Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court, for issues including:

  • unjustified dismissal

  • unjustified disadvantage

  • an Employment Relations Act 2000 section 142Y personal recovery from employer claim

• appearances in the District Court for steps in a shipping case featuring a claim of promissory estoppel and applications for injunctions 

Energy and policy work

Beyond legal practice, Peter has expertise in the following areas:

• • Energy market design and market systems, including market implementation and settlement auditing

  • Project management, including core Government IT infrastructure projects

  • Tender management, from either supplier or vendor perspectives, in New Zealand and internationally

  • Information architecture, from a strategic business level down to computer system design

  • Policy compliance audits, such as compliance with the Privacy Act or NZ Government Web Guidelines

Working with other consultants, energy-related projects that Peter has been involved in have included:

• certification and recertifications of the eirGrid I-SEM market as part of a Market Reform team since 2017.

• for the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company, advising on an RFP for IT consultants to help with their market systems projects.

• for the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organisation, comparing vendor settlement formulations with the market rules, analysing and documenting any inconsistencies found.  Peter Kelly worked as part of a Market Reform team on this project.

• a similar exercise for the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), with a similar team.

• working on the AEMO Short Term Trading Market for gas.  He was working as part of a Market Reform team that was certifying the market systems, providing extending testing of their behaviour interfaces, and documenting market outcomes in terms of the market rules.

• providing assistance over the 2006-2008 period to the Western Australia Independent Market Operator, with involvement in writing market procedures, changes to the Wholesale Electricity Market Rules, specifying and testing changes to the ABB-developed market systems, the development of analytical tools, such as market power measures, the checking of market settling processes, and involvement in setting and explaining prudential risk management limits.