Identification of Key Influencing Factors of Sustainable Development for Traditional Power Generation Groups in a Market by Applying an Extended MCDM Model

Abstract

With the deepening reform of the power market, the external environment of China’s power industry is going through a huge change. China’s traditional power generation groups (TPGGs), with assets all over the country, are, due to a lack of market awareness about energy policies, facing serious challenges in developing competitive advantages, improving power transaction modes, optimizing profit models, and even realizing basic corporate strategies. In this study, we focus on identifying the key factors influencing sustainable development in an unprecedented market environment for TPGGs, so as to achieve overall sustainable development for the whole power generation sector in China. A hybrid framework based on Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) was proposed to recognize the key influencing factors under vague rule conditions. We developed a novel method combining three different MCDM methods with triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs), fuzzy Delphi, fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and Analytic Network Process (ANP), to cover uncertainty and make the problem-solving approach closer to the actual problem. A series of analyses indicate that the final 14 factors covering the five dimensions are considered to be important factors in the sustainable development of TPGGs. Based on the results, it can be said that “Gross energy margin” and “Pricing bidding strategy” dominate the impacts of TPGG’s sustainable development. Finally, we give some advice relating to practical measures to help TPGGs achieve sustainable development in the market-oriented industry environment.

Assessment of Energy Systems Using Extended Fuzzy AHP, Fuzzy VIKOR, and TOPSIS Approaches to Manage Non-Cooperative Opinions

“…Figure 1. Flow chart for the energy systems selection decision procedure The criteria set used for multi criteria GDM, conducted for selection of energy systems [6,13,15,18,22,24,26,29,32,36,40] in different countries, is given in Table 1. Table 2 shows the scores used for the assessment of fuzzy linguistic terms.…”

“…The energy security problem, the rising energy prices, and the other important factors require sustainable development of power generation systems. The application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches [13] can prioritize the importance of the energy systems. On the other hand, the economic growth and social needs will increase the hydrocarbon consumption from 3.4 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) to 8.3 million BOE per day shortly.…”

Developing Sustainable City Indicators for Cambodia through Delphi Processes of Panel Surveys

“…Delphi method had been used in many areas and can be used for any purpose requiring the use of committees [58][59][60][61][62]. Based on many studies, Sourani and Sohail (2015) presented Delphi as useful to (a) obtain accurate information that is unavailable, (b) handle complex problems that require more judgmental analysis, (c) define areas where there is considerable uncertainty and/or a lack of agreed knowledge or disagreement, (d) allow for combining fragmentary perspectives into a collective understanding, (e) model a real-world phenomenon involving a range of viewpoints and for which there is little established quantitative evidence, and (f) highlight topics of concern and assess uncertainty in a quantitative manner [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77].…”

“…More recently, Delphi has been widely used to develop the criteria and indicators in many fields, especially in construction fields [56][57][58][59][60][61][62]; for example, Sourani and Sohail (2015) [63] used the Delphi technique to develop an agreed set of economic sustainability criteria that should be addressed in a procumbent strategy. Moreover, many studies [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77] have showed that Delphi can be useful to (a) obtain accurate information that is unavailable, (b) handle complex Sustainability 2019, 11, 3166 3 of 32 problems that require more judgmental analysis, (c) define areas where there is considerable uncertainty and/or a lack of agreed knowledge or disagreement, (d) allow for combining fragmentary perspectives into a collective understanding, (e) model a real world phenomena involving a range of viewpoints and for which there is little established quantitative evidence, and (f) highlight topics of concern and assess uncertainty in a quantitative manner. In particular, based on the summary explained in Appendix A [78][79][80][81][82][83][84], this research accordingly chose the Delphi technique to develop sustainable city indicators (SCIs) for Cambodia through three-round panel surveys.…”

Operation Health Assessment of Power Market Based on Improved Matter-Element Extension Cloud Model

“…MCDM is widely used not only in research but also in practice. Common methods include TOPSIS [21], VIKOR [22], the correlation degree method [23], the FMEA method [24,25], the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCEM) [26], genetic algorithm [27], the entropy weight method [28], ANP [29], AHP [30], etc. These methods have specific advantages and applications.…”