AHP-based prioritization of microgrid generation plans considering resource uncertainties

The growing focus on the energy efficiency promotion, deployment of renewable energy resources, and serving the electricity in more reliable ways have recently resulted in a remarkable attention on microgrids. Among different electricity generation options available for a microgrid, the one compromising both technical and economical aspects is of a great desire. Taking into account the existing uncertainties associated with energy resources, this paper evaluates various distributed generation (DG) configuration plans for a microgrid using analytical hierarchical process (AHP) approach. A variety of DG resources including photovoltaic and wind generation are incorporated in the analysis. Meanwhile, the uncertainties associated with solar radiation, wind speed, and fuel prices are considered. For the sake of numerical analysis, DG configuration plans are generated with the HOMER software; thereafter, the plans are assessed with the Expert Choice software that supports the AHP approach.