A multi-criteria decision making approach for public lighting system selection

Abstract

There are numerous and different ways to design an energy efficient street lighting system, but not always the best technical solution is the optimal economic solution as well. In this paper, we used two distinct software tools in order to obtain the optimal technical and economic solution for selecting street lighting technology. The first software used was DIALux, which is frequently applied in this field, assisting designers in choosing the most appropriate electrical installations and evaluating the technical performance of the chosen solutions. This tool determined the street lighting system variants for which there are predetermined configurations, so that the lighting parameters obtained are in accordance with the normative requirements of the lighting classes in which the roadways are included. Different ways of locating the luminaires and other parameters were changed to reach the best version that meets the qualitative requirements of the lighting technology. The second software used was the one developed by the authors, based on ELECTRE III method, which evaluated the technical solutions returned by DIALux against several criteria, taking into account the designer’s preferences and constraints. The optimal technical and economic solution was obtained after ranking the variants by their performance at each criterion. The simulation experiment and the results returned suggested that the combination of the two software tools is comprehensive and effective and it can be used in this type of decisions at large scale.