Cette thèse s’intéresse à la problématique de la prédiction dans le cadre du design de systèmes énergétiques et des problèmes d’opération, et en particulier, à l’évaluation de l’adéquation de systèmes de production d’énergie renouvelables. L’objectif général est de développer une approche empirique pour générer des prédictions avec les incertitudes associées. En ce qui concerne cette direction de la recherche, une approche non paramétrique et empirique pour estimer les intervalles de prédiction (PIs) basés sur les réseaux de neurones (NNs) a été développée, quantifiant l’incertitude dans les prédictions due à la variabilité des données d’entrée et du comportement du système (i.e. due au comportement stochastique des sources renouvelables et de la demande d'énergie électrique), et des erreurs liées aux approximations faites pour établir le modèle de prédiction. Une nouvelle méthode basée sur l'optimisation multi-objectif pour estimer les PIs basée sur les réseaux de neurones et optimale à la fois en termes de précision (probabilité de couverture) et d’information (largeur d’intervalle) est proposée. L’ensemble de NN individuels par deux nouvelles approches est enfin présenté comme un moyen d’augmenter la performance des modèles. Des applications sur des études de cas réels démontrent la puissance de la méthode développée. / This Ph.D. work addresses the problem of prediction within energy systems design and operation problems, and particularly the adequacy assessment of renewable power generation systems. The general aim is to develop an empirical modeling framework for providing predictions with the associated uncertainties. Along this research direction, a non-parametric, empirical approach to estimate neural network (NN)-based prediction intervals (PIs) has been developed, accounting for the uncertainty in the predictions due to the variability in the input data and the system behavior (e.g. due to the stochastic behavior of the renewable sources and of the energy demand by the loads), and to model approximation errors. A novel multi-objective framework for estimating NN-based PIs, optimal in terms of both accuracy (coverage probability) and informativeness (interval width) is proposed. Ensembling of individual NNs via two novel approaches is proposed as a way to increase the performance of the models. Applications on real case studies demonstrate the power of the proposed framework.

本研究主要應用基於總體經驗模態分解法(EEMD)之倒傳遞類神經網路(BPNN)預測兩種不同的非線性時間序列數據，包括政大逐時用電量以及逐日歷史黃金價格。透過EEMD，這兩種資料會分別被拆解為數條具有不同物理意義的本徵模態函數(IMF)，而這讓我們可以將這些IMF視為各種影響資料的重要因子，並且可將拆解過後的IMF放入倒傳遞類神經網路中做訓練。 另外在本文中，我們也採用移動視窗法作為預測過程中的策略，另外也應用內插法和外插法於逐時用電量的預測。內插法主要是用於補點以及讓我們的數據變平滑，外插法則可以在某個範圍內準確預測後續的趨勢，此兩種方法皆對提升預測準確度占有重要的影響。 利用本文的方法，可在預測的結果上得到不錯的準確性，但為了進一步提升精確度，我們利用多次預測的結果加總平均，然後和只做一次預測的結果比較，結果發現多次加總平均後的精確度的確大幅提升，這是因為倒傳遞類神經網路訓練過程中其目標為尋找最小誤差函數的關係所致。 / In this paper, we applied the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) based Back-propagation Neural Network (BPNN) learning paradigm to two different topics for forecasting: the hourly electricity consumption in NCCU and the historical daily gold price. The two data series are both non-linear and non-stationary. By applying EEMD, they were decomposed into a finite, small number of meaningful Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). Depending on the physical meaning of IMFs, they can be regarded as important variables which are input into BPNN for training. We also use moving-window method in the prediction process. In addition, cubic spline interpolation as well as extrapolation as our strategy is applied to electricity consumption forecasting, these two methods are used for smoothing the data and finding local trend to improve accuracy of results. The prediction results using our methods and strategy resulted in good accuracy. However, for further accuracy, we used the ensemble average method, and compared the results with the data produced without applying the ensemble average method. By using the ensemble average, the outcome was more precise with a smaller error, it results from the procedure of finding minimum error function in the BPNN training.

MSc (Statistics) / Department of Statistics / Forecasting of electricity peak demand levels is important for decision makers in Eskom. The overall objective of this study was to develop medium term load forecasting models which will help decision makers in Eskom for planning of the operations of the utility company. The frequency table of hourly daily demands was carried out and the results show that most peak loads occur at hours 19:00 and 20:00, over the period 2009 to 2013. The study used generalised additive models with and without tensor product interactions to forecast electricity demand at 19:00 and 20:00 including daily peak electricity demand. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) and Lasso via hierarchical interactions were used for variable selection to increase the model interpretability by eliminating irrelevant variables that are not associated with the response variable, this way also over tting is reduced. The parameters of the developed models were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood and penalized regression. The best models were selected based on smallest values of the Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and Generalized cross validation (GCV) along with the highest Adjusted R2. Forecasts from best models with and without tensor product interactions were evaluated using mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE). Operational forecasting was proposed to forecast the demand at hour 19:00 with unknown predictor variables. Empirical results from this study show that modelling hours individually during the peak period results in more accurate peak forecasts compared to forecasting daily peak electricity demand. The performance of the proposed models for hour 19:00 were compared and the generalized additive model with tensor product interactions was found to be the best tting model. / NRF

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The compressed air system is widely used throughout the industry. Air compressors are one of the most costly systems to operate in industrial plants in terms of energy consumption. Therefore, it becomes one of the primary targets when it comes to electrical energy and load management practices. Load forecasting is the first step in developing energy management systems both on the supply and user side. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted, and there was a need to study if predicting compressed air system’s load is a possibility. System’s load profile will be valuable to the industry practitioners as well as related software providers in developing better practice and tools for load management and look-ahead scheduling programs. Feed forward neural networks (FFNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) techniques have been used to perform 15 minutes ahead prediction. Three cases of different sizes and control methods have been studied. The results proved the possibility of the forecast. In this study two control methods have been developed by using the prediction. The first control method is designed for variable speed driven air compressors. The goal was to decrease the maximum electrical load for the air compressor by using the system's full operational capabilities and the air receiver tank. This goal has been achieved by optimizing the system operation and developing a practical control method. The results can be used to decrease the maximum electrical load consumed by the system as well as assuring the sufficient air for the users during the peak compressed air demand by users. This method can also prevent backup or secondary systems from running during the peak compressed air demand which can result in more energy and demand savings. Load management plays a pivotal role and developing maximum load reduction methods by users can result in more sustainability as well as the cost reduction for developing sustainable energy production sources. The last part of this research is concentrated on reducing the energy consumed by load/unload controlled air compressors. Two novel control methods have been introduced. One method uses the prediction as input, and the other one doesn't require prediction. Both of them resulted in energy consumption reduction by increasing the off period with the same compressed air output or in other words without sacrificing the required compressed air needed for production. / 2019-12-05

This paper investigates correlation between energy consumption 24 hours ahead and features used for predicting energy consumption. The features originate from three categories: weather, time and previous energy. The correlations are calculated using Pearson correlation and mutual information. This resulted in the highest correlated features being those representing previous energy consumption, followed by temperature and month. Two identical feature sets containing all attributes1 were obtained by ranking the features according to correlation. Three feature sets were created manually. The first set contained seven attributes representing previous energy consumption over the course of seven days prior to the day of prediction. The second set consisted of weather and time attributes. The third set consisted of all attributes from the first and second set. These sets were then compared on different machine learning models. It was found the set containing all attributes and the set containing previous energy attributes yielded the best performance for each machine learning model. 1In this report, the words ”attribute” and ”feature” are used interchangeably. / I denna rapport undersöks korrelation och betydelsen av olika attribut för att förutspå energiförbrukning 24 timmar framåt. Attributen härstammar från tre kategorier: väder, tid och tidigare energiförbrukning. Korrelationerna tas fram genom att utföra Pearson Correlation och Mutual Information. Detta resulterade i att de högst korrelerade attributen var de som representerar tidigare energiförbrukning, följt av temperatur och månad. Två identiska attributmängder erhölls genom att ranka attributen över korrelation. Tre attributmängder skapades manuellt. Den första mängden innehåll sju attribut som representerade tidigare energiförbrukning, en för varje dag, sju dagar innan datumet för prognosen av energiförbrukning. Den andra mängden bestod av väderoch tidsattribut. Den tredje mängden bestod av alla attribut från den första och andra mängden. Dessa mängder jämfördes sedan med hjälp av olika maskininlärningsmodeller. Resultaten visade att mängden med alla attribut och den med tidigare energiförbrukning gav bäst resultat för samtliga modeller.

<div>The compressed air system is widely used throughout the industry. Air compressors are one of the most costly systems to operate in industrial plants in therms of energy consumption. Therefore, it becomes one of the primary target when it comes to electrical energy and load management practices. Load forecasting is the first step in developing energy management systems both on the supply and user side. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted, and there was a need to study if predicting compressed air system’s load is a possibility. </div><div><br></div><div>System’s load profile will be valuable to the industry practitioners as well as related software providers in developing better practice and tools for load management and look-ahead scheduling programs. Feed forward neural networks (FFNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) techniques have been used to perform 15 minutes ahead prediction. Three cases of different sizes and control methods have been studied. The results proved the possibility of the forecast. In this study two control methods have been developed by using the prediction. The first control method is designed for variable speed driven air compressors. The goal was to decrease the maximum electrical load for the air compressor by using the system's full operational capabilities and the air receiver tank. This goal has been achieved by optimizing the system operation and developing a practical control method. The results can be used to decrease the maximum electrical load consumed by the system as well as assuring the sufficient air for the users during the peak compressed air demand by users. This method can also prevent backup or secondary systems from running during the peak compressed air demand which can result in more energy and demand savings. Load management plays a pivotal role and developing maximum load reduction methods by users can result in more sustainability as well as the cost reduction for developing sustainable energy production sources. The last part of this research is concentrated on reducing the energy consumed by load/unload controlled air compressors. Two novel control methods have been introduced. One method uses the prediction as input, and the other one doesn't require prediction. Both of them resulted in energy consumption reduction by increasing the off period with the same compressed air output or in other words without sacrificing the required compressed air needed for production.</div><div><br></div>