Grey Relational Analysis Method

1. Data pre-processing
i)
Data representative
ii)
Data normalization
a) Higher-the-better
b) Lower -the-better
c) Nominal -the-best
2. Calculation of gray relational coefficient
3. Calculation of Grey relational grade
4. Determination of the Optimal Factor and its Level Combination.

Step 1: Data normalization:- First represent the original data series X as

reference (x0 ) and comparative series (xi ). In this paper, reference series, (x0 )
represent the different barriers w.r.t. thermal power plants and comparative series
(xi ) represent the no. of respondents under each barrier.
In this study, below Equation is employed, since output of this study has the
characteristic of the lower is better, means that if the value of grey
Relational grade is lower, and then there is a strong influence on sustainability. The
range of data is adjusted so as to fall within [0,1] range.

Step 2: To calculate gray relational coefficient

The grey relational coefficient is calculated to express the relationship between the
ideal (best) and actual normalized experimental results.

Before that the deviation sequence for the reference and comparability sequence
were found out.
The grey relational coefficient can be expressed as

Where,

0i (k) is the deviation sequence of the reference sequence and

comparability sequence

Y0 (k) denotes the sequence and yj (k) denotes the comparability

sequence. is distinguishing or identified coefficient. The value of is
the smaller and the distinguished ability is the larger. = 0.5 is generally
used.

Step 3: Calculation of Grey relational grade

The grey relational grade was determined by averaging the grey relational
coefficient corresponding to each performance characteristic. It is given in the. The
overall performance characteristic of the multiple response process depends on the
calculated grey relational grade. The grey relational grade can be expressed as

Where, iis the grey relational grade for the jth experiment and k is the
number of performance characteristics.
Step 4: Determination of the Optimal Factor and its Level
Combination.

There are 3 main steps in GRA. The first step is data pre-processing. Data preprocessing is usually required w h e n t h e r a n g e o r u n i t i n one data sequence is
different from others or the sequence scatter range is too large. Data pre-processing
is a method of transferring the original data sequence to a comparable sequence.
Therefore, data must be normalized, scaled and polarized first into a comparable
sequence before proceed to other steps. The processing is called generation of grey
relation or standard processing.
There are two process involves in this step; data representative and data
normalization. First represent the original data series X as reference (x0 ) and
comparative series (xi ). In this paper, reference series, (x0 ) represent the different
barriers w.r.t. thermal power plants and comparative series(xi )represent the no. of
respondents under each barrier.
Then implement the data normalization. There are a few formulas of data preprocessing available for the GRA. The determination of which formula to be
employed for data normalization is based on the characteristics of a data sequences,
for example:
1. If the expectancy is the higher-the-better, then it can be expressed by

2. If the expectancy is the lower-the-better, then it can be expressed by

In this study, Equation (2) is employed, since output of this study has the
characteristic of the lower is better, means that if the value of grey
relational grade is lower , then there is a strong influence on sustainability. The
range of data is adjusted so as to fall within [0,1] range.

2 . The next step is to locate the grey relational coefficient by

using, Eq.

is known as identification coefficient with [0,1], which can be adjusted

to help make better distinction between normalized reference series and
normalized comparative series. Normally =0.5 is used because its
offers moderate distinguishing effect and stability.
Furthermore, based on mathematic proof, the value change of will only
change the magnitude of the relational coefficient but it wont change the
rank of the grey relational grade . From the calculation, the values of min
and max are respectively 0 and 1. Then replace these values , we obtained
as

Step 3: Calculation of Grey relational grade

After the grey relational coefficient is derived, grey relational grade
(GRG) is calculated by averaging the value of the grey relational
coefficients. GRG is defined as the numerical measure of the relevancy
between two systems or two sequences such as the reference sequence
and the comparability sequence. The existing GRG between two series is
always distributed between 0 and 1. Grey relational grade can be
calculated using relation below.

Step 4: Determination of the Optimal Factor and its Level

Combination
In this study, GRG is used to indicate the degree influence that the
comparability sequence (affecting barriers as factors) could exert over the
reference sequence (sustainability components). Therefore, if a particular
comparability sequence is more important than the other comparability
sequences to the reference sequence, than the GRG for that comparability
sequences and reference sequence will be higher than other GRG.