Author(s):
Ribeiro, Fernando 
; Ferreira, Paula Varandas ; Araújo, Maria Madalena Teixeira de
Date: 2013
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/26142
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Subject(s): Multi-criteria decision tools; Energy scenarios; Power supply
Description
A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tool was designed and used to support the evaluation of
different electricity production scenarios. The MCDA tool is implemented in a user-friendly Excel
worksheet and uses information obtained from a mixed integer optimization model, to produce a set
of optimal schemes under different assumptions. 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 MCDA tool was used by
a group of experts and academics with background in economics, engineering and environment.
Regarding the totality of results, both the most and least expensive scenarios ranked first the same
amount of times. These scenarios were, respectively, “Coal”, relying mainly in new coal power plants
and “Maximum Renewable”, relying mainly in new wind and hydro power facilities. The opinions
were divided towards these two solutions with different fundamental characteristics: “Maximum
Renewable” with costs higher than “Coal” but leading to substantial reduction of the external energy
dependency. Sensitivity analysis suggests that, although the costs are regarded as the most important
criterion, those who had different rankings in their preferences have different attitudes towards
other criteria.
