A Hybrid Stacking Model for Enhanced Short-Term Load Forecasting

The high penetration of distributed energy resources poses significant challenges to the dispatch and operation of power systems. Improving the accuracy of short-term load forecasting (STLF) can optimize grid management, thus leading to increased economic and social benefits. Currently, some simple AI and hybrid models have issues to deal with and struggle with multivariate dependencies, long-term dependencies, and nonlinear relationships. This paper proposes a novel hybrid model for short-term load forecasting (STLF) that integrates multiple AI models with Lasso regression using the stacking technique. The base learners include ANN, XgBoost, LSTM, Stacked LSTM, and Bi-LSTM, while lasso regression serves as the metalearner. By considering factors such as temperature, rainfall, and daily electricity prices, the model aims to more accurately reflect real-world conditions and enhance predictive accuracy. Empirical analyses on real-world datasets from Australia and Spain show significant improvements in the forecasting accuracy, with a substantial reduction in the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) compared to existing hybrid models and individual AI models. This research highlights the efficiency of the stacking technique in improving STLF accuracy, thus suggesting potential operational efficiency benefits for the power industry.