A multi-criteria decision analysis tool to support electricity planning

Abstract

A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tool was designed to support the evaluation of different electricity production scenarios. The MCDA tool is implemented in Excel worksheet and uses information obtained from a mixed integer optimization model. Given the input, the MCDA allowed ranking different scenarios relying on their performance on 13 criteria covering economic, job market, quality of life of local populations, technical and environmental issues. The criteria were weighted using both direct weights and trade-off analysis. In this paper, scenarios for the case of the Portuguese electricity system are presented, as well as the results of the evaluation, using the MCDA tool, relying on the input from a group of academics with background in economics, engineering and environment.