Optimization of Campus Distributed Energy System Based on Multi-Criteria Decision-Making: A Case Study of Kitakyushu Science and Research Park
Abstract
Universities are key actors in the global pathway to carbon neutrality due to their diverse energy demands and innovation capacity. Based on the author’s previous study using twenty years of operational data (2002–2021), the distributed energy system (DES) at Kitakyushu Science and Research Park (KSRP), Japan, was found to exhibit a significant increase in carbon emission intensity from 0.12 to 0.25 tCO₂/GJ (+108%), primarily driven by equipment degradation and declining renewable penetration. Building on this diagnosis, this study aims to identify optimal improvement pathways by applying a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework combining Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Four criteria—emission reduction, economic efficiency, technological maturity, and policy compatibility— are used to evaluate multiple technologies and their combinations. The results show that photovoltaic (PV) systems rank highest among single technologies, while PV +storage achieves the best performance among two-technology systems, and a three-technology integration of PV + Storage + Smart Microgrid demonstrates the highest overall effectiveness, highlighting the importance of system-level coordination. Based on these findings, a phased roadmap is proposed, including short-term deployment of PV + Storage, medium-term integration of GSHP and microgrids, and long-term adoption of bioenergy and hydrogen. This study provides a transparent and reproducible AHP–TOPSIS framework with synergy evaluation and offers practical guidance for campus decarbonization.
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Article Details
Accepted 2026-04-07
Published 2026-04-08