MULTICRITERIA DECISION AID - CASE OF INTE GRATION OF TECHNICAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA AT HYDRO-QUEBEC

The use of a multicriteria decision aid is essentially characterized b y (I) an approach that explicitly uses several points of view or crite ria (2) a form of communication that allows structured interactions be tween decision-makers and analysts ans (3) a methodology that consists of generating potential actions, formulating criteria and creating a performance table that utilizes the information by using a multicritic al ranking procedure. As part of an exploratory study at Hydro-Quebec, a multicritical aid has been used to analyse the ranking of scenarios for hydroelectric facilities. The study involved three groups of part icipants: the committee of decision-makers that sets priorities and ad opts a position; the experts, who respond to requests to evaluate the scenarios according to each criterion, and a task force that applies a multicriteria aid to decision-making, coordinating meetings with the committee of decision-makers and consultations with the expects. The p resentation will illustrate how a multicriteria approach can help take into account technical, economic and environmental considerations and highlight the decisive issues. The interactions and discussions sprea d over time can help clarify and generalize understanding of the evalu ation criteria ia used in the ranking procedure.