Confidence modeling with reliability: a systems approach to sustainable energy planning

BackgroundEnergy systems planning has played a strong role in setting up the framework for developing long-term policies of energy activities to help guide the future of a local, regional or national energy system. However, the planning process is complicated with a variety of uncertainties and complexities. In this study, a fuzzy confidence model coupled with mixed-integer programming was proposed for regional energy systems planning.ResultsApplication of the model to a hypothetical case indicated that the model was capable of handling uncertainties expressed as fuzzy sets and taking capacity-expansion issues of energy facilities into consideration. The solutions from the proposed model could meet system constraints at different confidence levels, where each confidence level was further associated with different reliability scenarios.ConclusionsThe proposed model could help decision makers analyze the trade-offs between system economy and reliability, and explore cost-effective energy systems planning strategies under uncertainty.