Picture fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making method to hotel building energy efficiency retrofit project selection

Building energy consumption accounts for a considerable proportion on energy consumption. To reduce building energy consumption, building energy efficiency retrofitting (BEER) based on Energy Performance Contracting mechanism is the most feasible and cost-effective method. With the increase number of BEER projects, BEER project selection has become an essential problem for energy service companies. In this paper, a multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) method is proposed to deal with BEER project selection problem. First, picture fuzzy sets are employed to describe the evaluation information under the complex and uncertain environment. Subsequently, picture fuzzy weighted average operator and Laplace distribution-picture fuzzy order weighted average operator are proposed based on convex combination to aggregate individual evaluations into the overall evaluations. Furthermore, picture fuzzy TOPSIS-based QUALIFLEX method is developed to identify the optimal ranking of alternatives. Moreover, the practicality, effectiveness and advantages of the proposed MCGDM method are illustrated using a case study of hotel BEER project selection and comparative analysis. Finally, conclusions about primary contributions, and future discussions of the proposed method are demonstrated.