Decision aid for hydropower project prioritisation in Nepal by applying Visual PROMETHEE

Abstract

Nepal needs appropriate decision framework for exploring huge hydropower potential, This work primarily proposes a decision framework applicable to small hydropower schemes (1 to 25 MW) to assist in prioritisation. In the future a similar approach could be developed to prioritise hydropower projects across a broad capacity range. This paper, based on a multi-criteria approach, has the main objective to develop a decision support tool to evaluate, compare and rank alternative proposals of hydropower schemes. The proposed framework organised wide range of criteria under five goals referring to economic, social, environmental, political objectives and additionally, their inherent uncertainties. Six Nepalese pilot sites with comparable capacity were identified for testing the decision framework and Visual PROMETHEE (VP) application proved to be effective for decision making. Thus Visual PROMETHEE could be used for developing decision aid and effective in decision making or prioritising hydropower options exhibiting quite different features.