Planning of off-grid power supply systems in remote areas using multi-criteria decision analysis

Abstract

Providing electricity access in remote and rural areas across the world has always been economically and technically challenging. Prioritising energy sources to electrify a remote community is the most complicated step. A combination of multiple resources is always preferable as no single alternative is absolute. The incorporation of economic, technical and environmental aspects in the strategic decision-making makes the process complicated for standalone off-grid power supply system planning. This study proposes a novel method using an Analytical Hierarchy Approach-based multi-criteria decision analysis along with system optimisation to obtain universal priority criteria and the best system configuration among a few alternatives. The novelty of the approach lies in the structured deliberation and the analysis to formulate a planning approach for the off-grid power supply system using a combination of experts’ assessment and system optimisation study. The method is applied to a remote Australian community. The analysis result identifies the most preferred standalone off-grid power supply system options for a remote rural area, which in this Australian case, is the Diesel-PV-Battery system.