IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v9y2021i2p200-d483238.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Data Envelopment Analysis Approach to Energy-Saving Projects Selection in an Energy Service Company

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel Villa

    (School of Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, E41092 Seville, Spain)

  • Sebastián Lozano

    (School of Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, E41092 Seville, Spain)

  • Sandra Redondo

    (School of Engineering, Universidad de Sevilla, E41092 Seville, Spain)

Abstract

Project selection is a common problem for many companies. Specifically, it consists in identifying which projects should be selected with regard to their economic efficiency, i.e., the projects that maximise the profit they bring in while minimising the cost of the resources consumed. In this paper, we have focused our interest on energy service companies because of the importance of a convenient selection of their projects. In these types of companies, the attractiveness of a project depends on both the profit estimations obtained in simulations of the energy systems to be improved, as well as the probability that the project will be awarded (e.g., in local government bids, where typically several energy service companies compete to win the bid). We propose a new project selection method, especially tailored to energy service companies and based on centralised data envelopment analysis models with limited availability of the resources. This contrasts with all existing project selection methods and allows the proposed approach to make more efficient use of the limited resources. We have applied the model to a real-world case by selecting projects in a Spanish energy service company, showing the benefits of applying this approach, and comparing the results obtained with other data envelopment analysis project selection approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel Villa & Sebastián Lozano & Sandra Redondo, 2021. "Data Envelopment Analysis Approach to Energy-Saving Projects Selection in an Energy Service Company," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:200-:d:483238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/2/200/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/2/200/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vine, Edward L. & Murakoshi, Chiharu & Nakagami, Hidetoshi, 1998. "International ESCO business opportunities and challenges: a Japanese case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 439-447.
    2. Dominique Deprins & Léopold Simar & Henry Tulkens, 2006. "Measuring Labor-Efficiency in Post Offices," Springer Books, in: Parkash Chander & Jacques Drèze & C. Knox Lovell & Jack Mintz (ed.), Public goods, environmental externalities and fiscal competition, chapter 0, pages 285-309, Springer.
    3. Sebastián Lozano & Gabriel Villa, 2004. "Centralized Resource Allocation Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 143-161, July.
    4. Shang, Tiancheng & Zhang, Kai & Liu, Peihong & Chen, Ziwei & Li, Xiangpeng & Wu, Xue, 2015. "What to allocate and how to allocate?—Benefit allocation in Shared Savings Energy Performance Contracting Projects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 60-71.
    5. Stuart, Elizabeth & Larsen, Peter H. & Goldman, Charles A. & Gilligan, Donald, 2014. "A method to estimate the size and remaining market potential of the U.S. ESCO (energy service company) industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 362-371.
    6. Vine, Edward, 2005. "An international survey of the energy service company (ESCO) industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 691-704, March.
    7. Cook, Wade D. & Green, Rodney H., 2000. "Project prioritization: a resource-constrained data envelopment analysis approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 85-99, June.
    8. Tone, Kaoru, 2002. "A slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 32-41, November.
    9. Deng, Qianli & Jiang, Xianglin & Zhang, Limao & Cui, Qingbin, 2015. "Making optimal investment decisions for energy service companies under uncertainty: A case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 234-243.
    10. Mehdi Toloo & Soroosh Nalchigar & Babak Sohrabi, 2018. "Selecting most efficient information system projects in presence of user subjective opinions: a DEA approach," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 26(4), pages 1027-1051, December.
    11. Petr Fiala, 2018. "Project portfolio designing using data envelopment analysis and De Novo optimisation," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 26(4), pages 847-859, December.
    12. Vine, E & Nakagami, H & Murakoshi, C, 1999. "The evolution of the US energy service company (ESCO) industry: from ESCO to Super ESCO," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 479-492.
    13. Bertoldi, Paolo & Boza-Kiss, Benigna, 2017. "Analysis of barriers and drivers for the development of the ESCO markets in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 345-355.
    14. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anatoliy Alabugin & Sergei Aliukov & Tatyana Khudyakova, 2022. "Review of Models for and Socioeconomic Approaches to the Formation of Foresight Control Mechanisms: A Genesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Nadia M. Guerrero & Juan Aparicio & Daniel Valero-Carreras, 2022. "Combining Data Envelopment Analysis and Machine Learning," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, March.
    3. Lozano, Sebastián & Contreras, Ignacio, 2022. "Centralised resource allocation using Lexicographic Goal Programming. Application to the Spanish public university system," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Kaiyang Zhong & Chenglin Li & Qing Wang, 2021. "Evaluation of Bank Innovation Efficiency with Data Envelopment Analysis: From the Perspective of Uncovering the Black Box between Input and Output," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(24), pages 1-18, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cagno, Enrico & Franzò, Simone & Storoni, Elena & Trianni, Andrea, 2022. "A characterisation framework of energy services offered by energy service companies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    2. Töppel, Jannick & Tränkler, Timm, 2019. "Modeling energy efficiency insurances and energy performance contracts for a quantitative comparison of risk mitigation potential," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 842-859.
    3. Wenjie Zhang & Hongping Yuan, 2019. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Energy Performance Contracting Research from 2008 to 2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Carvallo, Juan Pablo & Murphy, Sean P. & Stuart, Elizabeth & Larsen, Peter H. & Goldman, Charles, 2019. "Evaluating project level investment trends for the U.S. ESCO industry: 1990–2017," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 139-161.
    5. Wenjie Zhang & Hongping Yuan, 2019. "Promoting Energy Performance Contracting for Achieving Urban Sustainability: What is the Research Trend?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Bustos, F. & Lazo, C. & Contreras, J. & Fuentes, A., 2016. "Analysis of a solar and aerothermal plant combined with a conventional system in an ESCO model in Chile," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1156-1167.
    7. Lu, Zhijian & Shao, Shuai, 2016. "Impacts of government subsidies on pricing and performance level choice in Energy Performance Contracting: A two-step optimal decision model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1176-1183.
    8. Shang, Tiancheng & Zhang, Kai & Liu, Peihong & Chen, Ziwei & Li, Xiangpeng & Wu, Xue, 2015. "What to allocate and how to allocate?—Benefit allocation in Shared Savings Energy Performance Contracting Projects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 60-71.
    9. Qin, Quande & Liang, Fuqi & Li, Li & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Selection of energy performance contracting business models: A behavioral decision-making approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 422-433.
    10. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2016. "Research fronts in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    11. Rafael Benítez & Vicente Coll-Serrano & Vicente J. Bolós, 2021. "deaR-Shiny: An Interactive Web App for Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    12. Baležentis, Tomas & De Witte, Kristof, 2015. "One- and multi-directional conditional efficiency measurement – Efficiency in Lithuanian family farms," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(2), pages 612-622.
    13. Okay, Esin & Okay, Nesrin & Konukman, Alp Er S. & Akman, Ugur, 2008. "Views on Turkey's impending ESCO market: Is it promising?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1821-1825, June.
    14. Okay, Nesrin & Akman, Ugur, 2010. "Analysis of ESCO activities using country indicators," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 2760-2771, December.
    15. Carlucci, Fabio & Corcione, Carlo & Mazzocchi, Paolo & Trincone, Barbara, 2021. "The role of logistics in promoting Italian agribusiness: The Belt and Road Initiative case study," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    16. Pantaleo, Antonio & Candelise, Chiara & Bauen, Ausilio & Shah, Nilay, 2014. "ESCO business models for biomass heating and CHP: Profitability of ESCO operations in Italy and key factors assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 237-253.
    17. Aparicio, Juan & Monge, Juan F. & Ramón, Nuria, 2021. "A new measure of technical efficiency in data envelopment analysis based on the maximization of hypervolumes: Benchmarking, properties and computational aspects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(1), pages 263-275.
    18. Ashrafi, Ali & Seow, Hsin-Vonn & Lee, Lai Soon & Lee, Chew Ging, 2013. "The efficiency of the hotel industry in Singapore," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 31-34.
    19. Chen, Yufeng & Ni, Liangfu & Liu, Kelong, 2021. "Does China's new energy vehicle industry innovate efficiently? A three-stage dynamic network slacks-based measure approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    20. Honma, Satoshi, 2012. "Environmental and economic efficiencies in the Asia-Pacific region," MPRA Paper 43361, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:200-:d:483238. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.