Selection of multicriteria decision analysis methods for electrification projects in rural Sub-Sahara Africa – A case study in Niger

Abstract

Electrification of rural areas is seen as an important step to reach sustainable development goals (SDG) in Sub-Sahara Africa to support the worldwide holistic equality by an independent and higher technical life standard. This project supports the electrification of rural areas in Niger by the establishment of a standardized decentralized energy concept by optimization of an imminent decentralized energy system (DES) by a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) in terms of energetic, economic, environmental, and social aspects. This concept will motivate private and public investors to fund upcoming DES. The proposed method is a combination of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for structuring and weighting the elements and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to rank the predefined alternatives and to find the most suitable alternative from the set of alternatives in consideration of fuzzy numbers for uncertain input data. Both introduced methods are commonly used in energy studies.