A novel consensus model with probabilistic linguistic preference relation for the utilization mode selection of renewable energy sources

The exploitation and utilization of renewable energy is an important issue that contributes to the sustainable development of the national economy. This paper deals with the utilization mode selection of renewable energy in a group decision making (GDM) problem with multiple stakeholders whose assessments are represented as the probabilistic linguistic preference relations (PLPRs). For GDM problems with PLPRs, two requirements should be satisfied before selection process: individual consistency and group consensus. In this regard, a premetric-based consensus measure of PLPRs is defined to describe the consensus level among stakeholders and a consensus improvement model is developed to modify the identified PLPRs while guaranteeing the consistency of the adjusted PLPRs. Then, the proposed method is applied to solve the utilization modes selection of multiple renewable energy in the Jinsha River upper reaches. Finally, the robustness and comparative analysis validate the good adaptability, high efficiency and better practical use values of this method.