Selection of Best Renewable Energy Source by Using VIKOR Method

The increasing global demand for the sustainable development of electricity sectors increased the contribution of renewable energy sources (RESs). RESs give the flexibility to install generation units at demand areas and reduce transmission and distribution losses. Selection of appropriate RES is more strategic and decisive area. This is a complex multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem of having uncertain and conflicting factors. In this work, we used the recently developed MCDM technique VIKOR method to choose best appropriate RES alternative for installation at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus, India. The advantage of VIKOR method is to have a solution closest to the ideal solution having an acceptable compromise of conflicting and non-commensurable criteria. For assigning weights to the different criteria, we used analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The importance of different criteria has been assigned by decision-makers based on their preferences. The result shows that the wind turbine option is the best choice for the case of BHU campus. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.