Multi-facet assessment and ranking of alternatives for conceptualizing sustainable hybrid energy infrastructure in Pakistan based on evidential reasoning driven probabilistic tool

Developing a sustainable community is mainly contingent upon energy infrastructure driven by energy alternatives. It has been attempted to accomplish energy sustainability by just ranking energy alternatives. In the current work, an integrated decision support tool (IDST) and multi-level hierarchical structure (MLHS) are developed to instigate new notions for energy alternatives. The developed IDST is unique in dealing with two-dimensional assessment information and can also concurrently analyze hybrid information. The MLHS comprises eighteen attributes grouped into five sustainability aspects (operational, economic, technological, environmental, and social) to assess energy alternatives, including gas, coal, nuclear, solar, hydro, wind, and biomass. Firstly, the importance of attributes is calculated using the optimal weighting approach. Then, the ranking of alternatives is determined and validated. Lastly, the multi-facet performance of alternatives is assessed in terms of distributed performance and indexing using the probabilistic evidential reasoning algorithm, and the acceptability of alternatives is classified. The results revealed hydro is the most favorable energy alternative for achieving sustainability, followed by solar and wind, with a ‘very good’ index overall. The developed framework is useful for designing sustainable hybrid energy infrastructures and for intergovernmental organizations to draft long- and short-term policies for achieving the energy sustainability targets of SDG-7.