Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks

As green energy technology develops, so too grows research interest in topics such as solar power forecasting. The output of solar power generation is uncontrollable, which makes accurate prediction of output an important task in the management of power grids. Despite a plethora of theoretical model...

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Main Authors: Chee-Hoe Loh, Yi-Chung Chen, Chwen-Tzeng Su, Heng-Yi Su
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-11-01
Series:Applied Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/22/10625
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author Chee-Hoe Loh
Yi-Chung Chen
Chwen-Tzeng Su
Heng-Yi Su
author_facet Chee-Hoe Loh
Yi-Chung Chen
Chwen-Tzeng Su
Heng-Yi Su
author_sort Chee-Hoe Loh
collection DOAJ
description As green energy technology develops, so too grows research interest in topics such as solar power forecasting. The output of solar power generation is uncontrollable, which makes accurate prediction of output an important task in the management of power grids. Despite a plethora of theoretical models, most frameworks encounter problems in practice because they assume that received data is error-free, which is unlikely, as this type of data is gathered by outdoor sensors. We thus designed a robust solar power forecasting model and methodology based on the concept of ensembling, with three key design elements. First, as models established using the ensembling concept typically have high computational costs, we pruned the deep learning model architecture to reduce the size of the model. Second, the mediation model often used for pruning is not suitable for solar power forecasting problems, so we designed a numerical–categorical radial basis function deep neural network (NC-RBF-DNN) to replace the mediation model. Third, existing pruning methods can only establish one model at a time, but the ensembling concept involves the establishment of multiple sub-models simultaneously. We therefore designed a factor combination search algorithm, which can identify the most suitable factor combinations for the sub-models of ensemble models using very few experiments, thereby ensuring that we can establish the target ensemble model with the smallest architecture and minimal error. Experiments using a dataset from real-world solar power plants verified that the proposed method could be used to build an ensemble model of the target within ten attempts. Furthermore, despite considerable error in the model inputs (two inputs contained 10% error), the predicted NRMSE of our model is still over 10 times better than the recent model.
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spelling doaj-art-8484ef951b3a4d89a919e7b7d2cec2192024-11-26T17:49:33ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172024-11-0114221062510.3390/app142210625Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural NetworksChee-Hoe Loh0Yi-Chung Chen1Chwen-Tzeng Su2Heng-Yi Su3Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin 640301, TaiwanDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402202, TaiwanDepartment of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin 640301, TaiwanDepartment of Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106344, TaiwanAs green energy technology develops, so too grows research interest in topics such as solar power forecasting. The output of solar power generation is uncontrollable, which makes accurate prediction of output an important task in the management of power grids. Despite a plethora of theoretical models, most frameworks encounter problems in practice because they assume that received data is error-free, which is unlikely, as this type of data is gathered by outdoor sensors. We thus designed a robust solar power forecasting model and methodology based on the concept of ensembling, with three key design elements. First, as models established using the ensembling concept typically have high computational costs, we pruned the deep learning model architecture to reduce the size of the model. Second, the mediation model often used for pruning is not suitable for solar power forecasting problems, so we designed a numerical–categorical radial basis function deep neural network (NC-RBF-DNN) to replace the mediation model. Third, existing pruning methods can only establish one model at a time, but the ensembling concept involves the establishment of multiple sub-models simultaneously. We therefore designed a factor combination search algorithm, which can identify the most suitable factor combinations for the sub-models of ensemble models using very few experiments, thereby ensuring that we can establish the target ensemble model with the smallest architecture and minimal error. Experiments using a dataset from real-world solar power plants verified that the proposed method could be used to build an ensemble model of the target within ten attempts. Furthermore, despite considerable error in the model inputs (two inputs contained 10% error), the predicted NRMSE of our model is still over 10 times better than the recent model.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/22/10625solar power forecastingrobust predictionlightweight deep learning model
spellingShingle Chee-Hoe Loh
Yi-Chung Chen
Chwen-Tzeng Su
Heng-Yi Su
Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks
Applied Sciences
solar power forecasting
robust prediction
lightweight deep learning model
title Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks
title_full Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks
title_fullStr Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks
title_full_unstemmed Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks
title_short Establishing Lightweight and Robust Prediction Models for Solar Power Forecasting Using Numerical–Categorical Radial Basis Function Deep Neural Networks
title_sort establishing lightweight and robust prediction models for solar power forecasting using numerical categorical radial basis function deep neural networks
topic solar power forecasting
robust prediction
lightweight deep learning model
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/14/22/10625
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