Fuzzy AHP-based Siting of Small Modular Reactors for Power Generation in the Smart Grid

Distributed Generation (DG) resources could help in mitigating the increase in the electricity demand and the high burden on the central grid by reducing the transmission and distribution power losses. As the name implies, DG resources are in general located in a distributed manner near the load centers. Therefore, choosing a proper site for a new DG is a critical step for its long term efficient power generation. In addition, DG siting involves many factors such as economic, social, environment, geographic, availability of electrical infrastructure, etc. Examples of DGs include, solar panels, micro wind turbines, small hydropower units, fuel cells and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). In this paper, we introduce a model using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) algorithms to develop a ranking system to choose proper sites for SMR power generation units. We consider electrical and non-electrical loads, existing and retiring generation, transmission lines, switching stations as the location-dependant scenarios for determining suitable locations. We produce more precise results by implementing fuzzy logic based AHP algorithm which deals with the linguistic vagueness and uncertainty of the siting data.