A TODIM-Based Investment Decision Framework for Commercial Distributed PV Projects under the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) Business Model: A Case in East-Central China

Yuan

2019

Energies

The increasing demand for applying energy performance contracting (EPC) for urban energy conservation has resulted in a significant amount of publications over the past decade. This study tries to identify future research trends in the subject of EPC through analyzing 127 journal papers published from 2008 to 2018. Based on the analysis and discussion of the EPC research, several main research trends were identified. The research results reveal an increasing research interest in EPC over the period. The findings imply that case study is the major research method and descriptive analysis and statistical analysis are primarily used for data analysis. In addition, EPC research in the past decade focused on five major research topics, which are ‘implementation of EPC projects’, ‘EPC mechanism and business models’, ‘decision-making in EPC projects’, ‘Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in EPC projects’, and ‘risk management in EPC projects’. Based on the five research topics, future research trends and directions in EPC were identified as well. The findings of this study can be informative and valuable for guiding future research in EPC, and are particularly helpful for researchers who are keen to open a new window of investigating EPC issues worldwide.

Section: The Five Main Research Topicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Trend Of "Epc Mechanism and Business Models"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Promoting Energy Performance Contracting for Achieving Urban Sustainability: What is the Research Trend?

Yuan

2019

Energies

“…Lee and Dzeng [6] evaluated the whole situation of EPC projects in Hong Kong and Taiwan based on a dual-questionnaire survey and structured interviews. Among the various factors affecting EPC project performance, contract terms, such as the total inputs of an EPC project, the cost of capitals, the sharing ratios of participants, and the contract period, are critical [29]. In actual EPC project operations, different business models exist for contract design, such as the three EPC business models of the shared savings model (SSM), guaranteed saving model (GSM), and chaffee model (CM) claimed by Shang et al [16]; the three EPC models of the shared savings model (SSM), guaranteed saving model (GSM), and outsourcing model (OM) proposed by Liu et al [21]; and the EPC models of the share savings model (SSM), guaranteed savings model (GSM), energy-cost trust model (ECTM), and finance lease model (FLM) developed by Qin et al [4].…”

Section: Mechanisms For Effective Epc Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bibliometric Analysis of Energy Performance Contracting Research from 2008 to 2018

Yuan

2019

Sustainability

Increasing research interests in energy performance contracting (EPC) has resulted in a large number of publications over the past decade. However, very limited attempts have been made to map the global research in this area. To identify the state of the field and trends in EPC research, the VOSviewer software package was used to conduct a series of content analyses and examine global patterns among publications, including the distribution of core authors and institutions, high-frequency categories and keywords, journal and author contributions, highly cited papers, etc. Based on a systematical and deeply qualitative analysis on the 127 identified papers, five mainstream research topics in EPC were summarized, covering implementations of EPC, mechanisms for effective EPC projects, stakeholder behaviors and decisions in EPC projects, energy service company (ESCO) in EPC projects, and risk management in EPC. In addition, six main research gaps in EPC were identified, including lack of effective measurement and verification of energy savings, limited studies on EPC projects in the residential sector, ineffective mechanisms to ensure post-EPC energy-saving, limited research on the dual relationships among EPC project stakeholders, how to improve the energy users’ (EU) attitudes/cognitions toward ESCO/EPC, and lack of effective mechanisms to prevent risks in EPC projects. Furthermore, based on the current EPC research topics and research gaps in EPC, six potential research directions in EPC in future were also explored, which are how to develop effective methods for measuring and verifying energy efficiency?, EPC diffusion issues in the residential sector, effective mechanisms to ensure post-EPC energy-saving, effects of cooperative and competitive relationships between EU and ESCO on the performance of EPC projects, how to improve the EU’s attitudes/cognitions toward ESCO/EPC, and how to deal with risks in EPC projects. The outcomes would be useful for understanding the latest development of global EPC research and guiding future research in the subject.

“…The fuzzy set theory, as proposed by Zadeh [22], has emerged as a powerful way to represent such uncertain phenomena. By combining the fuzzy set theory and traditional evaluation methods, some fuzzy evaluation methods have been developed by scholars; these include fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) [23] and fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches, such as fuzzy Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) [24], fuzzy VIsekriterijumska optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) [25], fuzzy PROMETHEE [26] and fuzzy TODIM [27]. The FSE method is a comprehensive evaluation approach based on fuzzy mathematics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Energy System Using an Improved Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation Approach

Xin

Kan³

2019

Sustainability

The hybrid energy system (HES) has attracted more and more attention since it can not only achieve multi-energy supply but realize cascade utilization of energy resources. However, the performances of the HES in relation to economic, environmental, social, and technological aspects are rarely studied. Therefore, this paper tries to fill this research gap to evaluate the sustainability performance of an HES. First, an evaluation criteria system is established based on a literature review. After that, the group analytic hierarchy process (GAHP) technique is used to obtain the importance weights of these criteria. Later, the sustainability performance of the HES is calculated through an improved fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) approach based on a cloud model. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated by a real case study in Zhejiang province, China. Finally, the sensitivity analysis results reveal that the overall consequence is that the performance of an HES is robust when the criteria weight is floating within a certain range (−30–30%), and the comparative analysis with the traditional FSE also reveals that the proposed approach is superior.