Insert the title here - EVUR - TU Berlin

Reviews have been done so far by Huang et al. (Articles from 1960 until 1994), Pohekar et al.
(Articles from 1983 until 2003) and Kowalski et al. (exerpt of articles between 1990 and
2007).
Huang et al. published the first review of literature on decision analysis in energy and
environmental modelling in 1995 (Huang95). A total of 95 articles have been surveyed
including methods of MCDA, MODM, DSS 3 and other methods such as decision tree or
influence diagram.
A categorisation according to application area (e.g. site selection of power plants or energy
planning and policy analysis), MCDA method and type of energy source is presented.
Furthermore, the application areas are described according to criteria such as level of
uncertainty and number of evaluation criteria. Finally, a corresponding MCDA method is
recommended by the authors.
In 2004 Pohekar et al. gave an overview on more than 90 published papers using MCDA and
MODM methods within energy applications (Pohekar04). Seven fields of application such as
renewable energy planning or energy resource allocation have been identified. The articles are
clustered by field of application, method used and period of time.
In 2008 Kowalski et al. showed a list of articles published until 2007. However, that review
includes key articles only and was not comprehensive.
Since Pohekars research covered the literature on MCDA for energy applications until 2003
our research focussed on published articles since 2004. This work focuses on MCDA only as
MODM methods usually end up with an unfeasible solution and are thus unsuitable for
energy management problems in a real world context (Polatidis06).
In order to learn about trends in MCDA within energy application the following criteria have
been analysed during the study of literature:
1. Type of energy system:
As MCDA has the opportunity to look at quantitative and qualitative data especially
the merits and impacts of renewable energy systems can be incorporated. This
evaluation criterion distinguishes between mere renewable energy application (RE),
renewable and conventional (fossil, nuclear) applications (RE + CE) and other energy
applications such as a ranking of policy instruments (others).
2. MCDA method applied:
This criterion shows the MCDA method or methods that have been used for the
corresponding case study.
3. Real world application:
In order to find out the real world potential of MCDA this criteria shows whether the
applications has been conducted within a real world case study i.e. with data from a
local or national application compared to a work based on theoretical calculations.
According to this classification the results of a real world case study could be
implemented within a certain region.
3 DSS (decision support system) refers to any interactive, flexible and adaptable computerbased system,
developed for supporting the solution of a particular management problem (Huang 95)