The growth in renewable energy study has resulted in the expansion of mini-grids projects across different communities in developing countries. However, there is a need to ensure that a suitable business model is selected during the provision of mini-grid services in developing countries. This study presents a framework for ranking mini-grid business models. The proposed framework is a multi-criteria multi-decision (MCMD) making tool. The framework combines Criteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation (CRITIC), TOPSIS (Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and WASPAS (weighted aggregated sum product assessment) methods. An interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) is used to convert the responses from decision-makers into crisp values. The applicability of the proposed framework was tested using Nigeria as a case study. Four potential mini-grid (private, government, community-based and public-private) business models for the case study were ranked using twelve criteria. The average values for the subjective and objective weight methods showed that electricity traffic and energy demand were the least and the most important criteria, respectively, for selecting a mini-grid business model. The results obtained showed that the best mini-grid model was a private model using a TOPSIS framework. A WASPAS framework ranked the community-based business model as the best model. This study results showed mini-grid business models in developing countries should be either private or community-based business models.

Retrofitting technologies have helped to manage energy consumptions in residential, public and industrial buildings. However, understanding of the technical and economic considerations for selection of appropriate retrofitting technology is still evolving and divergent. Thus, this study presents a framework that combines techno-economic requirements as a means for evaluating the important retrofitting criteria and suitable lighting retrofit technologies for building projects. The framework is hinged on the unique features of entropy fuzzy and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) methods. The analysis of the lighting technology selection was performed from technical, economic and techno-economic perspectives. During the application of the proposed framework, four lighting technologies (CFL, T5, E-ballast and T8-electronic) and nine techno-economic criteria were considered. The most and least important techno-economic criteria for the case study were net present value and electricity saved, respectively. The least and most suitable retrofitting technologies were T8-electronic and CFL, respectively, from techno-economic perspective. T5 and T8-electronic were identified as the most suitable lighting technologies from an economic and technical perspectives, respectively. This discrepancy in the results justified the need for the techno-economic approach for the retrofitting technologies evaluation.