A multi-criteria comprehensive evaluation method for distributed energy system

Abstract As the evaluation of distributed energy system (DES) is a complex problem, multi-criteria is necessary to fully evaluate the performance for different systems. In this paper, a novel multi-criteria evaluation method was established to assess the comprehensive performance of DES from economic, energy and environment criterions. Before constructing a multi-level indexes system, index correlation analysis was carried out to ensure the independence of indexes. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of subjective and objective methods, AHP-entropy method was proposed by integrating analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and information entropy method together to assign weights to the indexes. Finally, the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method was applied to determine the optimal DES scheme. The case study indicated that the evaluation results of this method were in accordance with the reality, which could provide a reference for the selection of DES solutions.