Net Load Forecasting Using Machine Learning with Growing Renewable Power Capacity Features: A Comparative Study of Direct and Indirect Methods

TL;DR

This study compares direct and indirect neural network methods, including LSTM and FCNN, for net load forecasting with renewable energy features, highlighting the superior performance of the indirect LSTM approach.

Contribution

It introduces renewable capacity as an input feature and compares direct and indirect methods, demonstrating the effectiveness of the indirect LSTM model for net load prediction.

Findings

Indirect method with FCNN outperforms direct approach.

LSTM with indirect method yields the best prediction accuracy.

Recurrent neural networks are particularly suitable for net load forecasting.

Abstract

Renewable energy adoption has increased significantly over the past few years. However, with the increasing adoption of renewable energy, forecasting the net load has become a major challenge due to the inherent uncertainty associated with these renewable sources. To mitigate the impact of uncertainties, this study utilizes long short-term memory (LSTM) model and fully connected neural networks (FCNN) to predict net load based on two independent approaches: the direct method and indirect method. While the conventional direct method directly forecasts the target net load, the indirect approach derives it by separately predicting total load and renewable energy generation. Furthermore, this study innovatively incorporates renewable energy capacity as an input feature to train the forecasting model. The indirect method for FCNN provided a better estimate than the direct method, and the indirect method for LSTM model gave the best prediction. These findings suggest that recurrent architectures like LSTM are particularly well-suited for net load forecasting applications, while the choice between direct and indirect methods depends on the specific neural network architecture employed. By advancing reliable forecasting tools for renewable energy integration, this work enhances grid resilience and accelerates the transition toward renewable-dominant power systems.