Comparative analysis of statistical, machine learning, and grey methods for short-term electricity load forecasting

Electricity load forecasting is crucial for electricity generation companies, distributors and other electricity market participants. In this study, several forecasting techniques are applied to time series modeling and forecasting of the hourly loads. Seasonal grey model, support vector regression, random forests, seasonal ARIMA and linear regression are benchmarked on seven data sets. A rolling forecasting model is developed and 24 hours of the next day is predicted for the last 14 days of each data set. This day-ahead forecasting model is especially important in day-ahead market activities and plant scheduling operations. Experimental results indicate that support vector regression and seasonal grey model outperforms other approaches in terms of forecast accuracy for day-ahead load forecasting.