A multiple criteria decision making approach for electricity planning in Spain: economic versus environmental objectives

Growing social concern about the environmental impact of economic development has drawn attention to the need to integrate environmental criteria into energy decision-making problems. This has made electricity planning issues more complex given the multiplicity of objectives and decision-makers involved in the decision making process. This paper proposes a methodology that combines several multi-criteria methods to address electricity planning problems within a realistic context. The method is applied to an electricity planning exercise in Spain with a planning horizon set for the year 2030. The model includes the following objectives: (1) total cost; (2) C0₂; (3) SO₂; and (4) NO _x emissions as well as the amount of radioactive waste produced. An efficient social compromise between these conflicting objectives is obtained, which shows the advantages of using this model for policy-making purposes.