A CRITIC-TOPSIS framework for hybrid renewable energy systems evaluation under techno-economic requirements

The electricity generation policy is a strategic policy that drives development in a community. Energy policies are often analyzed with the aim of generating a reliable and affordable electricity for a community. There is a high probability of achieving this aim when energy policy is combined with a community social, technical, economic and environmental needs. This paper determines a hybrid renewable energy source (HRESs) for a rural community using technical, economic, and techno-economic criteria. The selection process combines Criteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation (CRITIC) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) as a solution method. This approach applicability was tested using six HRESs under economic and technical criteria. Ten technical and nine economic criteria were simulated for the HRESs using HOMER. The results from the HOMER software show that A(5)(PV/wind/battery) and A(6) (PV/battery) had a renewable fraction of 1. The results obtained from the CRITIC method showed that the most important technical and economic criteria were diesel generator and total fuel cost, respectively. From an economic perspective, the best HRES for the case study was A(4) (diesel/batteries), while A(3) (wind/diesel generator/batteries) was the best HRES from a technical and techno-economic perspectives. (C) 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada.