Strategic evaluation of energy and distribution management systems

To maintain a secure and economic operation for huge power systems, some advanced power system control facilities and technologies, such as energy management system (EMS) and distribution management system (DMS), have been introduced into business operations since 1995. In average, an EMS/DMS system can run no more than ten years in China. Accordingly, most of the existing systems in China have reached the end of their life, and the power companies have a heavy task to either update or rebuild EMS/DMS systems. Therefore, it is essential for electric power companies to select the most appropriate contractor and energy system project in today´s complex social environment and rapidly-changing technological environment. It is surprised that no research has ever tackled such an important issue in power industry before. In order to fill the vacancy, this paper finds the critical success criteria of the EMS/DMS at the beginning stage. Then, a model that applies a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, an analytic network process (ANP) associated with benefits, opportunities, costs and risks (BOCR), is constructed to help power companies to select the most suitable EMS/DMS project.