An energy planning approach based on mixed 0–1 multiple objective linear programming

Multiple Objective Linear Programming (MOLP) models have been widely used in the energy sector for taking into account several conflicting objectives pursued in energy planning. However, continuous variables are not sufficient to accurately represent discrete phenomena encountered in many practical decision situations, such as the power generation expansion problem. This paper presents a new approach based on a mixed 0–1 MOLP model and applied to the Greek electricity generation sector for identifying the number and output of each type of power units needed to satisfy the expected electricity demand in the future. The core of the model is a branch and bound algorithm, which has been properly modified for the multi-objective case and is capable of generating the whole set of efficient solutions. The result provided by this method is the extraction of the efficient combinations of the power generation units, and for each combination the efficient solutions determining electricity production from each unit.