A comparison of the controllability properties of three thermally coupled distillation sequences (Petlyuk, sequence with side rectifier, and sequence with side stripper) using singular value decomposition is developed. Those properties are also compared to the energy consumption required for separating ternary mixtures. The parameters obtained via singular value decomposition show that sequences with a side rectifier or a side stripper have better control properties than the Petlyuk system, although the Petlyuk scheme has lower energy requirements than the systems with side columns.