AN APPLICATION OF MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION MAKING ON SELECTING THE PRIME MOVER FOR TRIGENERATION SYSTEMS

In today's world, fossil fuels are still considered to be the primary energy source. Increasing energy demand leads researchers to conduct studies on energy efficiency field. Two facades of energy efficiency problems are production type and consuming type, respectively. Fossil fuels are mainly used for generating electricity and heating. Tri-generation technologies enable simultaneous satisfaction of electricity, heating and cooling demands. Increasing number of studies show that these systems are more preferable regarding technical, economic, environmental and social aspects. On the other hand, choosing the right system configuration and operating this system optimally is an important problem itself. In this study, the most suitable alternative for a small sized tri-generation system is chosen using a multiple criteria decision making method. The alternatives of systems are adopted from the literature. The attributes that affect the selection process are also taken from the literature. Fuzzy TOPSIS is used in order to select the best alternative