Urban integrated energy system construction plan selection: a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making framework

Urban integrated energy system (UIES) differs significantly from the park-level integrated energy system (IES) due to its proximity to residents' daily lives and the constraints imposed by energy resources. Hence, UIES should be paid more attention on energy utilization efficiency and environment issues. Therefore, a scientific UIES construction plan should contribute more to the enhancement of economic benefit, energy utilization efficiency, and environmental protection. However, it is difficult to finding studies researching on UIES construction plan evaluation. Therefore, our study constructed a framework for selecting UIES construction plans utilizing multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM). The Fuzzy-Delphi is applied to build an evaluation indicator system, considering economic benefit, energy utilization efficiency, environmental protection, and social recognition perspectives. This system consists of 9 sub-criteria. Afterward, this study introduces a unique approach to weighting by combining the objective weights determined via the anti-entropy weight (AEW) technique with the subjective weights assessed through the best-worst method (BWM), following the fundamental principle of moment estimation. Furthermore, MARCOS model is used to thoroughly assess alternative UIES construction plans by measuring the alternatives and sorting them in terms of a compromise solution. This model takes both positive and negative ideal solutions into account. Ultimately, case analysis and comparison discussion are executed to testify the applicability and robustness of the established MCDM framework. The findings reveal that energy utilization efficiency and the performance of environmental protection significantly impact the determination of the best construction plan for UIES. The MCDM framework, which integrates Fuzzy-Delphi, AEW, BWM, and MARCOS methodologies, proves to be effective and reliable in choosing the optimal UIES construction plan.