Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (2008) xxx–xxx + Models RSER-498; No of Pages 33RIEP: Regional integrated energy plan

The energy planning endeavours for a particular region involves the finding of a set of sources and conversion devices so as to meet the energy requirement/demand of all the tasks in an optimal manner. This optimality depends on the objective to minimise the total annual cost of energy and the dependence on non-local resources or maximise the overall system efficiency. Factors such as availability of resources in the region and task energy requirements impose constraints on the regional energy planning exercise. Thus, regional energy planning turns out to be a constrained optimisation problem. This paper describes an optimum energy allocation using integrated energy planning approaches for Uttara Kannada district and makes a satisfying energy allocation plan for the years 2005, 2010 and 2015. Integrated energy planning gives an optimal mix of new/ conventional energy sources and is developed based on decision support systems (DSS) approach. The central theme of the energy planning at decentralised level would be to prepare regional energy plans to meet energy needs and development of alternate energy sources at least- cost to the economy and environment. Regional integrated energy planning (RIEP) mechanism takes into account various available resources and demands in a region. This implies that the assessment of the demand supply and its intervention in the energy system, which may appear desirable due to such exercises, must be at a similar geographic scale. Regional energy planning exercises need to be flexible (to cope with rapidly changing energy systems) and easy to use. The application of DSS is a new approach to this problem. Towards the goal of implementing analytical methods for integrated planning, computerised decision-system provides useful assistance in the analyses of available information, the projection of future conditions, and the evaluation of alternativ