Implication of national policy on electricity distribution system planning in Kenya

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-136).This research project proposes a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method of electricity distribution system planning based on the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) embedded in a 'bottom-up' planning process to investigate the implication of National Policy (Kenya Vision 2030) on distribution system planning in Kenya. This approach differs from the traditional optimization approaches used in Kenya which typically assesses alternative planning solutions by finding solutions with minimum total cost. Instead a separate capital cost is calculated for each solution, this ensures that the technical benefit of each solution is not obscured by the associated solution capital cost. The approach also allows for effective planning by starting the planning process from the distribution system upward