A DEA/Goal Programming Model for Incineration Plants Performance in the UK

Abstract

Incineration plants in UK carry out two important tasks: reduction of waste disposed to landfills, and power/heat production from waste incineration distributed to the grid. However, incinerating waste produces, except for desirable outputs like exported power, harmful emissions, too. In this work, a DEA/Goal Programming model is presented to assess the performance of each incineration plant. Data from 22 incineration plants have been collected regarding capacity (waste and power), power exported, annual availability and levels of harmful emissions. The proposed model provides an allocation of the examined incineration plants, by shutting down a plant if it doesn’t meet environmental targets. Additional constraints are considered regarding levels of power exported and annual availability. The model is solved for multiple scenarios regarding the number of incineration plants that will be eventually installed. Results are provided regarding the optimal allocation of each incineration plant and the optimal values of under and over achievement of each environmental target. Additionally, a comparative analysis is conducted on the scores derived from the proposed method and DEA models that handle both desirable and undesirable outputs. No differences between the two rankings are derived by applying statistical analysis.