Energy management in industry : multi-criteria decision-making applications

Abstract

Energy management (EM) is important for the competitiveness and profitability of companies. EM has become essential in the current global political-economic context. Commitment to social aspects, goals to reduce pollutant emissions, and policies for responsible use of natural resources also favoured the search for new methods and tools such as the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM). MCDM is a flexible approach and has the potential to harmoniously cooperate with other tools that have been applied in the most diverse areas, such as energy efficiency and management, plant selection, project evaluation, equipment evaluation and selection, and construction of indicators, among others. The growing number of works relating EM to MCDM is evidence of the increased use of these tools to support organizations in problems related to the themes, especially in complex scenarios, where several qualitative and quantitative variables are considered in a broad context organizational. To expand this frontier of knowledge, we must first understand where the current frontier is. This view can be obtained with one literature review. In this context, this work aims to present a literature review on MCDM application by EM in the industry. Specific objectives include the analysis of which MCDM methods have been applied, which areas of the industry, and which are the main barriers, challenges, and future trends.