Optimal selection of location for Distributed Generations to ensure a competitive advantage using fuzzy analytical network process

Population and industry growth has increased power consumption and consequently development of new power generators is inevitable in country. Costs of high production and transfer for large-scale power stations, has attracted new attentions to Distributed Generations (DGs) in recent years. With considering the capacity and location of these units, significant improvements on the distribution networks could be gained, although their miss-allocation will increase the network losses and transmission and distribution costs. This paper was aimed at prioritizing suitable places for the construction of the DGs in Yazd province in Iran. The ANP method was selected as decision making model because of the interrelationship between the criteria and also because the levels of decision could not be considered independently. Besides, as human judgments have fuzzy nature, the analysis was performed using fuzzy numbers. The criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives were specified by using the ideas of managers and experts in Yazd Power Distribution Company.