BUILDING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN ENERGY PLANNING - A MULTIMETHOD MCDM APPROACH TO DEMAND-SIDE PLANNING AT BC GAS

Multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are one means of quantify ing stakeholder values, but the way such methods are usually applied c an cause people to feel manipulated by a 'black-box' methodology. An a pproach is proposed to mitigate this problem, It asks each person to a pply two or more methods and to then resolve disagreements in the resu lts in order to build understanding. The approach recognizes that no s ingle method is best for every person. We describe a successful applic ation by a diverse stakeholder group. The results confirm that decisio ns yielded by alternative MCDM methods can disagree and that a multime thod approach builds insight and confidence. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.