Hybrid fuzzy system applied to prioritizing the construction of new feeders in power distribution networks

Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods have been used in various planning applications to classify, select, or order alternatives aggregated within a decision-making process. However, methods such as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in its traditional form, linearized AHP, and fuzzy-AHP extent analysis require the generation of paired comparison matrices associated with the alternatives for decision-making purposes. This work proposes a hybrid decision-making model based on the combination of the judgment matrix of the AHP method and an expert fuzzy system. A real case study of a concessionaire in Brazil is analyzed to validate the proposed model. The case study has 4 feeders that must be built. The traditional AHP method was applied, with the evaluation of 4 experts who produced a criteria judgment matrix containing the 10 analyzed criteria. After performing 240 comparisons between alternatives. The traditional AHP indicated priority indices of 50.35%, 23.98%, 14.25%, and 11.42%, respectively, for Feeders 1, 2, 3 and 4. The proposed hybrid AHP-Fuzzy method, using the same criteria judgment matrix elaborated by the experts, indicated priority indices of 40.36%, 25.04%, 24.82%, and 9.78%, respectively, for Feeders 1, 2, 3 and 4. The order of the priority obtained by the two methods was the same with the advantage that the proposed approach did not need to generate paired comparison matrices, contributing to minimize the dependence on human intervention and speed up the decision-making process. In the case study, the methods were also applied to linearized AHP and fuzzy-AHP extent analysis, which provided priority indices similar to those of the other methods, keeping the order of prioritization.