A hybrid multi-criteria assessment framework to prioritise power generation technologies in Iran

This paper develops a hybrid multi-criteria assessment framework to determine Iran's energy status and prioritise different alternatives of power generation technologies based on both renewable and non-renewable resources with emphasis on sustainable development criteria. This issue is investigated by a hybrid model named as FANP-BOCR that integrates various concepts including analytic network process (ANP), benefits, opportunities, costs and risks analysis (BOCR) and fuzzy sets theory. Comprehensive analysis of strategic criteria and various sub-criteria under benefits, opportunities, costs and risks sub-network is done to evaluate the most suitable power generation technologies in Iran. The calculation has been done by Super decision software. The results show that, in the benefits, opportunities and costs networks, the most preferred three alternatives are hydroelectric, wind and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC). But in the risk network; NGCC, natural gas combustion turbine (NGCT) and natural gas steam turbine (NGST) have the highest priority.