Decision Support System for Sustainability Assessment of Power Generation Technologies - Efficient Decision Support Systems: Practice and Challenges from Current to Future - page 521

related to environment protection, resource saving, readiness to introduce innovations, etc.
It expands the boundaries of macro and mesoenvironment, as well as the effect of these
factors on the performance in the energy sector.
Environmental Factors. Making an analysis of activities in the energy sector, it is worthwhile
to make a more thorough assessment of environmental factors. Companies operating in this
sector make a considerable impact on the environment. Organic fuels of limited quantities
are widely used in the process of energy production. Environment is polluted by SO 2 , CO 2 ,
NO x and other types of particulate matter, which are a by-product of energy production and
can affect the soil, the water, the air, the biological cycle, and can generate huge amounts of
hard waste (Ashina & Nakata, 2008; Streimikiene & Pusinaite, 2008). Despite high economic
performance parameters, nuclear energy includes a complex and expensive burying of
radioactive waste accumulated during the energy production cycle. Even electricity transfer
through open high voltage lines generates electromagnetic fields, the effect of which is
considered in legal acts regulating operation of such objects. Cleaner production tools,
therefore, is a very effective and economically beneficial course of action, when we must
analyse the sector's development and select the energy production technologies. For many
years, EU countries apply environmental protection measures based on market factors, for
instance, environmental taxes to increase the market share of products, processes and
services which are more acceptable in terms of environmental protection. Such taxes
encourage companies to allocate more funds for R&D and to invest into technologies less
damaging to the environment or consuming fewer resources (Staniskis & Stasiskiene, 2006).
Microlevel Factors. Microenvironment factors are related to a specific company that uses the
relevant energy production technology, they affect its ability to achieve its goals. These
factors embrace all things related to value delivery to the customer: activities of the
company, of its suppliers (from primary energy sources to supply, distribution and service
companies) of its competitors, consumers and the public. These factors depend on macro
and mesolevel factors. The energy sector must continuously keep high levels of
infrastructure maintenance, must modernise facilities, must expand, and must introduce
innovative technologies and management processes. The efficiency of the sector's
development and implementation of investment projects is affected by various microlevel
factors: land prices; lengthy procedures of territorial planning; efficiency of the process
related to reconstruction, modernisation, and supply of technologies, mechanisms and
equipment; financing conditions of development projects; etc.
Analysis of Groups that Influence Decisions. The analysis of environmental factors cannot be
thorough before the stakeholder groups, which affect activities and decisions, are
considered in assessment of specific environment in the energy sector. Activities in this
sector are controlled and coordinated by national institutions and a variety of EU
institutions. Various institutional participants—starting with international alliances,
committees of associations and ending with trade unions—have a direct influence on
sector's activities. Assessment of stakeholder groups considers the type of their influence,
their expectations, requirements, represented institutions, business sector, and possible
effect on the decision. All macrolevel stakeholders are active in the energy sector: national
governments, local governments, the public, suppliers of resources and technologies,
manufacturers, nature activists, etc. In the energy sector, the same stakeholder group may
have contradictory interests. For example, residents usually support companies which use
renewable resources but are against construction of wind parks in their neighbourhood
(Sims et al., 2008), suppliers of raw materials are interested in the development of the