International Cooperation for Clean Electricity: A UTASTAR Application in Energy Policy

Abstract

Energy policy making is a complex, multidisciplinary process that usually requires the assessment of a large number of factors. Consequently, Multiple Criteria Decision Making, which is a sub-discipline of Operational Research, has long been employed as an approach to addressing problems of this domain. This paper aims to explore how the preference disaggregation-aggregation paradigm, which infers a preference model from given global preferences on a set of reference alternatives, can support decision making in energy policy design and implementation. In this direction, a detailed literature review of multicriteria analysis applications in this domain is conducted, in which a knowledge gap regarding preference disaggregation approaches can be observed. The UTASTAR model is, then, described in detail and implemented in an energy policy application regarding the potential development of clean electricity projects through the cooperation between European Union member states and 22 neighbouring countries with which the Union has already established ties towards economic and energy market integration. The results of the study show that European countries outside the Union feature better potential for hosting clean energy projects compared to Middle East and North African countries; finally, the analysis suggests that UTASTAR can also provide concrete insight into the criteria weighting dynamics, as inferred by the global preferences of the decision makers.