MCDM Model for Natural Gas Pressure Reducing Station Site Selection

Abstract

Considering the increasing scenario of natural gas consumption, it is necessary that all agents in the chain use methods that structure decision-making and problem-solving processes. This paper proposes a multicriteria decision model to solve a site selection problem for a pressure reducing station. A natural gas distribution company was selected to test the model and the preference modeling was conducted through the flexible interactive tradeoff (FITradeoff) approach, according to the preferences of the decision maker (DM). FITradeoff's decision support system was used to assess the alternatives of the model, through the inference of the criteria scale constants. The results proved the robustness of the model and the DM evidenced consistency in its preferences. Also, the FITradeoff method demonstrated to be intuitive to apply, since a smaller effort is required from the DM and this is because the procedure does not require complete information in the scale constants elicitation process.