Power customer satisfaction and profitability analysis using multi-criteria decision making methods

Nowadays, the consumer demands for electrical energy are increasingly growing, because this energy is present in all fields of human activity. Any company producing and distributing electric power sets two main objectives, namely: customer satisfaction and profit making. The aim of this paper is to investigate appropriate tools (multi-criteria decision making methods) aiding decision makers to achieve these goals. The criteria adopted revolve around quality of service and include: cost, reliability, availability, maintainability and power quality. However, the alternatives are technical and organizational measures often taken in planning and operation phases of electrical power systems. Three methods are used, namely: the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the cost benefit analysis (CBA) and the economic criteria inspired from game theory (ECIGT). The first method highlights the impact of the experts' views in the formalism of the final decision of the manager and it is viewed as a transparent decision process. As for the ECIGT, it provides several scenarios to define a strategy according to the decision maker's behavior. One of its important finding resides in the possibility of evaluating the reactions of the customers towards the decisions taken by the system manager. Consequently, it allows the analysis of the enterprise profitability. However, the CBA method is efficiently integrated into these two complex methods decision making. The application developed in this paper shows that RAM (reliability, availability and maintainability) criteria are significant stakes in the performance of a business and are an important asset for new projects justification. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.