Multi-objective energy planning for regional natural gas distributed energy: A case study

•A multi-objective energy planning method is proposed for distributed energy.•The complete hierarchies for energy planning are presented.•The optimization and multi-criteria decision making methods are combined for site selection.•A planning case of CCHP systems for a high-tech industrial park is studied.

Energy planning for sustainable development plays an important role in guiding the future of local, regional and national energy systems. This paper presents a multi-objective energy planning methodology for regional distributed energy site selection based on natural gas (NG) CCHP systems in a high-tech industrial park in China. The energy planning developed in this paper includes four hierarchies: the planning objective; pretreatment, including load calculation and available resource estimation; site selection and configuration; and implementation. The treatment procedures in each hierarchy are described. Particularly for site selection and the configuration of CCHP schemes, multi-objective optimization is used to configure the capacities of the CCHP systems, and the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method is employed to evaluate their integrated performance, including energy generation, and impact on the environment, economy and society. The analysis results indicate that this methodology is at supporting the decision maker with regards to energy planning and site selection.