A Web-based Decision Support Center for Electrical Energy Companies

This study describes a framework for a Web-based decision support center (DSC) to aid various interrelated decisionmaking situations, which emerge from planning and management processes in electrical energy companies. This framework supports small collaborative groups working in an asynchronous way, in an environment where a single decision-maker (DM), who centralizes the responsibility for a final decision, can be aided by a group of experts, who contribute with their opinions to that decision. It is based on the construction and the analysis of (X, R) models, where X is a set of feasible solutions and R a set of fuzzy preference relations. Two preference formats, namely value functions and fuzzy sets, are made available to the input of preference information. Transformation functions adequate for dealing with preference measures on interval scales are utilized to construct fuzzy preference relations. The (X, R) models are analyzed by means of procedures based on the use of the Orlovsky choice function. The availability of different aggregation operators allows a DM to reproduce different attitudes: pessimistic, optimistic, compensatory with adjustment of the tradeoff rates among criteria, as well as lexicographic with prioritization of criteria. When the DM cannot choose a unique attitude to analyze a problem, DSC recommends a generalized solution, which considers all attitudes simultaneously. To demonstrate the applicability of the framework, an expansion planning decision-making problem is considered.