Multicriteria ranking of alternative locations for small scale hydro plants

Since energy consumption and its costs have recently rapidly increased, 'small scale' hydroplants (HP) are being widely used as energy sources. Our objective is to deal with the problem of small HP construction in a wide area covering many regions. The problem is to select some locations for each region by using the same methodology in order to make the unit costs as low as possible. When considering this problem, besides economical criteria, some other criteria must also be taken into account, such as technical, social, environmental etc. Multicriteria analysis is a quite realistic approach to such a complex problem which includes, among the others, some conflicting criteria. We have found that the Promethee method is well adapted to this problem, since its flexibility enables the decision maker to express precisely his preferences and stable results can be easily obtained by a sensitivity analysis. In this paper the problem is formulated, the criteria are estimated and quantified, and location planning is obtained by using the Promethee methodology. The obtained solutions are discussed and the computational results are given. © 1987.