The Fuzzy–AHP Synthesis Model for Energy Security Assessment of the Serbian Natural Gas Sector

Abstract

Natural gas is used for the production of almost 20% of total energy today. The natural gas security of the Republic of Serbia is an urgent strategic, political and security issue. Serbia is one of the most vulnerable countries in Southeast Europe, because it only has one supply route. This study is a contribution to efforts to better understand the factors affecting energy security through the implementation of a new methodology based on the fuzzy–AHP synthesis model for measuring energy security. This new methodology was used to identify the energy, economic, environmental, social and technical indicators that accompany energy security analysis. The fuzzy–AHP synthesis model uses the asymmetric fuzzy inference approach for an outcome finding with the asymmetric position of fuzzy sets. The most important characteristic of the proposed model is its ability to operate with numerical and linguistic data and universality of application. The result of the proposed model shows a quantified assessment of energy security and its trend in the future of the natural gas sector. It indicates an unacceptably low level of present energy security and a gas system very vulnerable to supply cuts if the current gas infrastructure remains as it is in the future.

Keywords

• energy security
• natural gas
• fuzzy–AHP
• AHP multi-criteria analysis
• fuzzy theory