A multicriteria approach to evaluate district heating system options

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Applied Energy

OSTI ID:984791

Ghafghazi, Saeed ^[1]; Sowlati, T ^[1]; Sokhansanj, Shahabaddine ^[2]; Melin, Staffan ^[1]

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1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver
2. ORNL

District energy systems, in which renewable energy sources may be utilized, are centralized systems to provide energy to residential and commercial buildings. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and rank energy sources available for a case of district heating system in Vancouver, Canada, based on multiple criteria and the view points of different stakeholders, and to show how communication would affect the ranking of alternatives. The available energy sources are natural gas, biomass (wood pellets), sewer heat, and geothermal heat. The evaluation criteria include GHG emissions, particulate matter emissions, maturity of technology, traffic load, and local source. In order to rank the energy options the PROMETHEE method is used. In this paper, two different scenarios were developed to indicate how the communication between the stakeholders would affect their preferences about criteria weights and would change the ranking of alternatives. The result of this study shows that without communication the best energy source for the considered district energy system is different for different stakeholders. While, addressing concerns through efficient communication would result in a general consensus. In this case, wood pellet is the best energy alternative for all the stakeholders.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 984791
• Journal Information: Applied Energy, Vol. 87, Issue (2010); ISSN 0306-2619
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
03 NATURAL GAS
09 BIOMASS FUELS
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
BIOMASS
CANADA
COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
COMMUNICATIONS
DISTRICT HEATING
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EVALUATION
NATURAL GAS
PARTICULATES
PELLETS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
WOOD
WOOD FUELS
District heating systems
Multi- criteria decision making
PROMETHEE
Group decision making
Renewable energy
Biomass.