arXiv subjects

Stephen Haben

Publications and source records attributed to Stephen Haben.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Review of Low Voltage Load Forecasting: Methods, Applications, and Recommendations

The increased digitalisation and monitoring of the energy system opens up numerous opportunities to decarbonise the energy system. Applications on low voltage, local networks, such as community energy markets and smart storage will facilitate decarbonisation, but they will require advanced control and management. Reliable forecasting will be a necessary component of many of these systems to anticipate key features and uncertainties. Despite this urgent need, there has not yet been an extensive investigation into the current state-of-the-art of low voltage level forecasts, other than at the smart meter level. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the landscape, current approaches, core applications, challenges and recommendations. Another aim of this paper is to facilitate the continued improvement and advancement in this area. To this end, the paper also surveys some of the most relevant and promising trends. It establishes an open, community-driven list of the known low voltage level open datasets to encourage further research and development.

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arXiv2019

Modelling the Demand and Uncertainty of Low Voltage Networks and the Effect of non-Domestic Consumers

The increasing use and spread of low carbon technologies are expected to cause new patterns in electric demand and set novel challenges to a distribution network operator (DNO). In this study, we build upon a recently introduced method, called "buddying", which simulates low voltage (LV) networks of both residential and non-domestic (e.g. shops, offices, schools, hospitals, etc.) customers through optimization (via a genetic algorithm) of demands based on limited monitored and customer data. The algorithm assigns a limited but diverse number of monitored households (the "buddies") to the unmonitored customers on a network. We study and compare two algorithms, one where substation monitoring data is available and a second where no substation information is used. Despite the roll out of monitoring equipment at domestic properties and/or substations, less data is available for commercial customers. This study focuses on substations with commercial customers most of which have no monitored `buddy', in which case a profile must be created. Due to the volatile nature of the low voltage networks, uncertainty bounds are crucial for operational purposes. We introduce and demonstrate two techniques for modelling the confidence bounds on the modelled LV networks. The first method uses probabilistic forecast methods based on substation monitoring; the second only uses a simple bootstrap of the sample of monitored customers but has the advantage of not requiring monitoring at the substation. These modelling tools, buddying and uncertainty bounds, can give further insight to a DNO to better plan and manage the network when limited information is available.

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arXiv2018

Short Term Load Forecasts of Low Voltage Demand and the Effects of Weather

Short term load forecasts will play a key role in the implementation of smart electricity grids. They are required to optimise a wide range of potential network solutions on the low voltage (LV) grid, including integrating low carbon technologies (such as photovoltaics) and utilising battery storage devices. Despite the need for accurate LV level load forecasts, previous studies have mostly focused on forecasting at the individual household or building level using data from smart meters. In this study we provide detailed analysis of a variety of methods in terms of both point and probabilistic forecasting accuracy using data from 100 real LV feeders. Moreover, we investigate the effect of temperature (both actual and forecasts) on the accuracy of load forecasts. We present some important results on the drivers of LV forecasting accuracy that are crucial for the management of LV networks, along with an empirical comparison of forecast measures.

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arXiv2017

A Genetic Algorithm Approach for Modelling Low Voltage Network Demands

Distribution network operators (DNOs) are increasingly concerned about the impact of low carbon technologies on the low voltage (LV) networks. More advanced metering infrastructures provide numerous opportunities for more accurate load flow analysis of the LV networks. However, such data may not be readily available for DNOs and in any case is likely to be expensive. Modelling tools are required which can provide realistic, yet accurate, load profiles as input for a network modelling tool, without needing access to large amounts of monitored customer data. In this paper we outline some simple methods for accurately modelling a large number of unmonitored residential customers at the LV level. We do this by a process we call buddying, which models unmonitored customers by assigning them load profiles from a limited sample of monitored customers who have smart meters. Hence the presented method requires access to only a relatively small amount of domestic customers' data. The method is efficiently optimised using a genetic algorithm to minimise a weighted cost function between matching the substation data and the individual mean daily demands. Hence we can show the effectiveness of substation monitoring in LV network modelling. Using real LV network modelling, we show that our methods perform significantly better than a comparative Monte Carlo approach, and provide a description of the peak demand behaviour.

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arXiv2016

A hybrid model of kernel density estimation and quantile regression for GEFCom2014 probabilistic load forecasting

We present a model for generating probabilistic forecasts by combining kernel density estimation (KDE) and quantile regression techniques, as part of the probabilistic load forecasting track of the Global Energy Forecasting Competition 2014. The KDE method is initially implemented with a time-decay parameter. We later improve this method by conditioning on the temperature or the period of the week variables to provide more accurate forecasts. Secondly, we develop a simple but effective quantile regression forecast. The novel aspects of our methodology are two-fold. First, we introduce symmetry into the time-decay parameter of the kernel density estimation based forecast. Secondly we combine three probabilistic forecasts with different weights for different periods of the month.

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