Prioritization for allocation of voltage regulators in electricity distribution systems by using a multicriteria approach based on additive-veto model

•Voltage regulators are located in a power distribution network.•Strategic issues are considered in a multicriteria additive-veto model.•A Decision Support System (DSS) incorporates the model.•This DSS facilitates the decision maker to understand concepts.•The DSS is at the disposal of the readers upon request to the authors.

The responsibility of Brazilian companies which produce and distribute electricity is to comply with standards and requirements about the level and quality of voltage that meet consumer demand. One of the strategies adopted to maintain control over the operations of the electricity supply is that of installing voltage regulators throughout the distribution network. However, this activity requires the management of available resources in terms of investing in equipment installations, and this is a major challenge for companies in the electricity sector. From this perspective, this article proposes a multicriteria model for prioritizing locations for installing voltage regulators in an electricity distribution network, which takes into consideration technical, regulatory, economic and social criteria to evaluate the consequences of installing voltage regulators and their operational performance. Thus, this paper presents an application of the Additive-veto Model for ranking multicriteria decision problems so as to relate the performance assessed by the decision-maker for allocating equipment to the set of available locations.