An interactive robust data envelopment analysis model for determining alternative targets in Iranian electricity distribution companies

One of the primary concerns on target setting the electricity distribution companies is the uncertainty on input/output data. In this paper, an interactive robust data envelopment analysis (IRDEA) model is proposed to determine the input and output target values of electricity distribution companies with considering the existence perturbation in data. Target setting is implemented with the uncertain data and the decision maker (DM) can search the envelop frontier and find the targets based on his preference. In order to search the envelop frontier, the paper combine the DEA and multi-objective linear programming method such as STEM. The proposed method of this paper is capable of handling uncertainty in data and finding the target values according to the DM’s preferences. To illustrate ability the proposed model, a numerical example is solved. Also, the input and output target values for some of the electricity distribution companies in Iran are reported. The results indicate that the IRDEA model is suitable for target setting based on DM’s preferences and with considering uncertain data.

Research highlights► This paper develops an interactive robust data envelopment analysis model for determining input and output target values with uncertain data. ► For modeling uncertainty in data, the robust optimization technique is applied and for incorporating decision maker’s preferences, the multi-objective technique such as STEM method is used.