Methods for multi-criteria sustainability and reliability assessments of power systems

•Multi-criteria assessments of power systems help planners improve sustainability.•Social, technical, economic and environmental indicators shape system sustainability.•Meaningful theoretical bounds provide a more fair and useful indexing system.

This paper reviews a published multi-criteria assessment of power systems and proposes new methods for normalization and ranking of criteria indicators. In previous work, the power systems are evaluated and ranked relative to the other systems considered in the assessment. This relative ranking system negatively affects the results in two ways. First, relative ranking tends to skew the results of the assessment, sometimes leading to incorrect conclusions and recommendations. Second, with a relative ranking system, the results lack applicability outside the assessment, since they are entirely dependent on the model from which they originate. This paper addresses these issues and proposes an extension that will combine experience curves, technological progress models, life cycle assessments, and thermodynamics within a dynamic multi-criteria optimization framework in order to create objective bounds for each sustainability indicator. This extension solves the relative ranking issue by creating a single system within which it is possible to rank and compare a variety of power systems, while maintaining relevant results between studies and over different scales. These results provide decision-makers with the information necessary to choose between systems to ensure a more sustainable future for the power sector.