(task) Grid Forecasting Tool Combines 5 Different Models - Energy Manager Today

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> http://www.energymanagertoday.com/grid-forecasting-tool-combines-5-different-models-0114226/ <http://www.energymanagertoday.com/grid-forecasting-tool-combines-5-different-models-0114226/>
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> Grid Forecasting Tool Combines 5 Different Models
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> July 30, 2015 By Linda Hardesty <http://www.energymanagertoday.com/author/lindahardesty/>
> A new tool that forecasts future electricity needs has been developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Performance of the Power Model Integrator tool was tested against five commonly used forecasting models processing a year’s worth of historical power system data.
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> “For forecasts one-to-four hours out, we saw a 30-55 percent reduction in errors,” said Luke Gosink, a staff scientist and project lead at PNNL. “It was with longer-term forecasts – the most difficult to accurately make – where we found the tool actually performed best.”
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> Fluctuations in energy demand throughout the day, season and year, along with weather events and increased use of intermittent renewable energy from the sun and wind all contribute to forecasting errors. Miscalculations can put stress on power generators and lead to instabilities or outages.
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> Grid coordinators have the daily challenge of forecasting the need for and scheduling exchanges of power to and from a number of neighboring entities. The sum of these future transactions, called the net interchange schedule, is submitted and committed to in advance. Accurate forecasting of the schedule is critical not only to grid stability, but a power purchaser’s bottom line.
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> Currently, forecasters rely on a combination of personal experience, historical data and often a preferred forecasting model. Each model tends to excel at capturing certain grid behavior characteristics, but not necessarily the whole picture. To address this gap, PNNL researchers theorized that they could develop a method to guide the selection of an ensemble of models with the ideal, collective set of attributes in response to what was occurring on the grid at any given moment.
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> First, the team developed a statistical framework capable of guiding an iterative process to assemble, design, evaluate and optimize a collection of forecasting models. Researchers then used this patent-pending framework to evaluate and fine-tune a set of five forecasting methods that together delivered optimal results.
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> The resulting Power Model Integrator tool has the ability to adaptively combine the strengths of different forecasting models continuously and in real time to address a variety scenarios that impact electricity use, from peak periods during the day to seasonal swings. To do this, the tool accesses short- and long-term trends on the grid as well as the historical forecasting performance of the individual and combined models. Minute by minute, the system adapts to and accounts for this information to form the best aggregated forecast possible at any given time.
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