Evolving artificial neural networks for short term load forecasting

Abstract

This paper presents artificial neural networks (ANN) evolved by a genetic algorithm for short-term load forecasting. Using real load values and forecast weather data these ANN have been tested for electric load forecasting on weekdays and weekends. For each day type, the best-evolved artificial neural network was found capable of accurately forecasting one- day ahead hourly loads. The forecasting results obtained using these best- evolved networks were observed to be consistently superior compared to a commonly used statistical method.