Load Forecasting

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What Does Load Forecasting Mean?

Load forecasting is a technique used by power or energy-providing companies to predict the power/energy needed to meet the demand and supply equilibrium. The accuracy of forecasting is of great significance for the operational and managerial loading of a utility company.

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Techopedia Explains Load Forecasting

Most forecasting methods use numerical techniques or AI algorithms such as recession, neural networks and indistinct logic. Load forecasting can be short-term (a few hours), medium-term (a few weeks up to a year) or long-term (over a year). The end-use and econometric approach is used for medium- and long-term forecasting, whereas the similar-day approach, various regression models, time series, neural networks, statistical learning algorithms and fuzzy logic have been devised for short-term forecasting. Depending on the time-series forecasting, the results can be categorized as:

  • Seasonal — Use of certain utility increases or decreases with season
  • Trend — On certain events
  • Random — No specific cause
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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.