Title: Decision support for assessing demand side management programmes

Authors: Alexandra G. Papadopoulou, Charikleia Karakosta, Dimitris Askounis

Addresses: Management and Decision Support Systems Laboratory (EPU-NTUA), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechniou str., 15773, Athens, Greece. ' Management and Decision Support Systems Laboratory (EPU-NTUA), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechniou str., 15773, Athens, Greece. ' Management and Decision Support Systems Laboratory (EPU-NTUA), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechniou str., 15773, Athens, Greece

Abstract: The structural changes of the energy markets, as well as the energy companies| obligations to abide by the emission limits have contributed to a shift among the companies| priorities, giving new impulse to demand side management (DSM) programmes, which can be seen as a way to meet several of the energy companies| modern objectives. However, appraising the DSM options| contribution to these objectives is a complex task, considering the imprecision and uncertainty of the related information. The objective of the paper is to present an integrated decision support methodology for the pre-selection of the DSM programmes, using an experts based system, and their evaluation, using the |linguistic TOPSIS| model, so as to identify and assess the DSM contribution to the energy policy objectives. The application of the method to the Greek energy market and the related sensitivity analysis are presented and discussed.

Keywords: demand side management; DSM; sustainability; decision support systems; DSS; multiple criteria analysis; linguistic variables; expert systems; energy policy; Greece; energy markets; multicriteria decision making; MCDM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2011.039585

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2011 Vol.1 No.2, pp.155 - 176

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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