A multi-criteria decision-making framework for site selection of distributed PV power stations along high-speed railway

Abstract

The construction of distributed photovoltaic power stations (DPVPS) along high-speed railway can supply power for the traction power supply system (TPSS) of high-speed railway. The DPVPS site selection is a natural call from the practice with the consideration of full use of solar PV. This paper addresses a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework for DPVPS site selection along high-speed railway for the first time. In this framework, an evaluation criteria system is established. Considering the particularity of DPVPS site selection problem along high-speed railway, two new criteria namely power consumption capacity of high-speed railway TPSS and impact on high-speed railway TPSS are presented innovatively. In view of the strong grey correlations among criteria, the fuzzy grey relational projection (FGRP) method is applied to select the optimal site which is greatly suitable to deal with the grey correlations. A case in Hebei Province with sensitivity analysis also illustrates the robustness and effectiveness of the framework. The calculation results of the case indicate that the sub-criteria of impact on high-speed railway TPSS (C26) has the largest comprehensive weight, which is 0.129. Among the four candidate sites, G1 gets the highest final score of 0.653. This paper puts forward an effective tool for railway companies to choose the most suitable site to build DPVPS along high-speed railway, which has the certain practical significance.