A DEA model to sustainability improvement of the electricity supply chain in presence dual-role factors and undesirable outputs: A case on the power industry

The energy and industrial sectors are the most attractive investment regions for enhancing efficiency in production processes. The power industry is one of the important investment targets for enhancing corporate sustainability. One of the most fundamental problems in the power industry is the control of wasted energy in oil and gas fields and power plant sectors and the power losses management in transmission and distribution lines. The investment to new technology innovation and environmental protection from pollution gases emission in energy and power plant sectors and the power losses management in transmission and distribution lines play an important role in the implementation progress of the power industry. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of investment to flare gas and greenhouses gases reduction in energy and power plant sections and power losses control by equipping sections to improved engineering systems in transmission and distribution networks of the electricity supply chain. Indeed, the supply chain management needs information related to investment effect to activity level control as handling flare gas in energy sections and reducing harmful substance emissions and greenhouses gases in power plant sectors and harnessing power losses in transmission and distribution networks. The proposed approach evaluates the sustainability and efficiency of an electricity supply chain by a radial model in the presence of two categories of inputs under natural and managerial disposability, dual-role factors and undesirable produces. A real case on the Iran power industry is presented to demonstrate the applicability and practicability of the proposed method. Moreover, to demonstrate the capability of the proposed approach a supply chain identified by oil and gas companies, power plants, transmissions companies, dispatching companies and final consumers in the Iran power industry. One empirical implication has obtained from model performance in the electricity supply chain. The results indicate approximately, the oil and gas fields, the power plants and the distribution lines and the public divisions of power consumers have earned 100%, 90% and 90% efficiency of the total in supply chains, respectively. Particularly, this study recommends that transmission and distribution companies must have adequate decisional capacities regarding investment for transmitting power to industrial, agriculture divisions in the power industry.