Data-Centric Demand Forecasting For Utilities

Growing amounts of data being archived and maintained in process historians calls for ever more intensive use of data-mining technologies allowing to explore the data, extract useful knowledge, and turn it into business advantage. Utility producers and utility distributors can take significant benefits from application of database-intensive techniques. This paper describes how exploratory analysis of historical datasets can help utility companies to identify typical demand patterns, and how these can be further used for forecasting of future consumption, and consequently for making decisions on optimal operation of the utility plant. The technical concept as well as all steps of the forecasting process are described along with summarization of the experience gained from development and practical implementation of a proprietary forecasting tool.