Decision support system for thermal power plant siting (SDSS)

On the basis of new technologies such as fuzzy sets, analytic hierarchy process and expert systems etc., a practical decision support system for thermal power plant siting (SDSS) has been set up and is presented in this paper. SDSS, as displayed on the PC screen, consists of ten parts: introduction, system maintenance, individual decision, clear database, consultation, auxiliary operation, multiple decision, sensitivity analysis, graph system and exit. SDSS can help decision makers to make individual decisions and multiple decisions on the site alternatives, in the preliminary feasibility study stage for thermal power plant siting, then it outputs the decision results and their certainty factors. SDSS not only can explain its reasoning process, decision results and rules in detail but also provide some expert conclusions in special fields for users. Guided by the domain experts SDSS can modify or enlarge its knowledge base easily. Through changing the weights of the criteria SDSS can do a sensitivity analysis on any site alternative if the users want. SDSS has good flexibility and can be used as a frame structure to form the expert systems in other fields. The man-machine interface in SDSS is clear and audio-visual, the decision results can be shown in all kinds of displays. SDSS can be applied to the other domains and the designing institutes throughout the country. Application of SDSS to the site selection of Wu Shashan, Ying Longshan, Qiang Jiao along the Zhe Jiang coast obtained a good result.<>