A multi-criteria planning approach for evaluating spatiotemporal complementarity of intercity energy demand in distributed energy systems

This study proposes an analytical framework to quantitatively evaluate the spatiotemporal complementarity of intercity electricity demand for the efficient deployment of distributed energy systems (DES). Using Seoul’s 25 administrative districts as the study area, electricity consumption data were analyzed on an hourly basis and categorized by dominant land use. A total of 95 intercity combinations were generated and assessed based on two criteria: demand variance and centroidal distance. The TOPSIS method was applied to integrate these criteria, assigning greater weight to demand stability. The combination of Jongno, Eunpyeong, and Gangbuk ranked highest, demonstrating both temporal smoothing effects and spatial feasibility. To verify the validity of the final rankings, a Partial Load Value Index (PLVI) was developed and applied to evaluate operational characteristics across load intervals. The results showed a strong correlation (R2 = 0.918) between the TOPSIS and PLVI rankings, confirming that the proposed approach is effective not only in theory but also in practical system operations.