An analytical method for the measurement of energy system sustainability in urban areas

Assessing the sustainability of urban energy systems and forecasting their development are important topics that have been the focus of recent research. In this paper, an approach for the measurement the sustainability of an urban energy system is introduced. The approach is based on prediction of the future energy needs within the consuming sectors of a city by specification of energy system development scenarios and validation of the scenarios by a multi-criteria decision method. Prediction of energy needs for the area of the city using the simulation model, model for analysis of the energy demands (MAED) is done. Finish the last level of aggregation, using the method of multi-criteria analysis, is getting the General Index of Sustainability (GIS), which shows a measure of the validity or viability, or quality of the investigated scenarios. In this way, the mathematical and graphical made a synthesis of all the indicators that are relevant to sustainable development. The accuracy in determining the mean of the GIS is checked by calculating the standard deviation. Also, a measure of reliability of the preference when watching a few consecutive scenarios was performed. The defined scenarios take into account the utilization of different energy sources, the exploitation of existing energy plants and infrastructure, and the building of new plants. The sustainability criteria are described by a unique set of economic, social and ecological indicators. The new approach was used to forecast the development of sustainable energy system in Belgrade, Serbia. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.