Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism

Accurate energy demand forecasting is vital for optimizing resource allocation and energy efficiency. Despite advancements in various prediction models, existing approaches often struggle to capture the complex, nonlinear relationships between temperature variations and electricity consumption. To a...

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Main Authors: Laial Alsmadi, Gang Lei, Li Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/7/3829
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author Laial Alsmadi
Gang Lei
Li Li
author_facet Laial Alsmadi
Gang Lei
Li Li
author_sort Laial Alsmadi
collection DOAJ
description Accurate energy demand forecasting is vital for optimizing resource allocation and energy efficiency. Despite advancements in various prediction models, existing approaches often struggle to capture the complex, nonlinear relationships between temperature variations and electricity consumption. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel hybrid deep learning model that integrates Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks with an attention mechanism designed to forecast day-ahead electricity demand in Australia. This research aims to enhance the accuracy of electricity demand predictions by effectively modeling the impact of heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) on energy usage. The HDDs and CDDs capture extreme weather conditions. They are critical for understanding spikes in energy consumption for heating and cooling needs. The proposed model leverages the strengths of CNNs in extracting spatial features in HDDs and CDDs, LSTMs in capturing temporal dependencies, and the attention mechanism in focusing on the most relevant aspects of the data. This study compares the CNN-LSTM-Attention model with traditional methods, including Deep Neural Networks, and demonstrates superior performance. The results show a significant reduction in both Mean Absolute Error and Mean Absolute Percentage Error, confirming the model’s effectiveness. The primary contribution of this paper lies in the novel integration of CDD and HDD data within the CNN-LSTM framework, which has not been extensively explored in prior studies. This approach offers a robust solution for energy management, particularly in climates with significant temperature fluctuations.
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spelling doaj-art-ff3b0aa43a9c48b8bcab9413fbdd3dce2025-08-20T03:06:27ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-03-01157382910.3390/app15073829Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention MechanismLaial Alsmadi0Gang Lei1Li Li2School of Electrical and Data Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, AustraliaSchool of Electrical and Data Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, AustraliaSchool of Electrical and Data Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, AustraliaAccurate energy demand forecasting is vital for optimizing resource allocation and energy efficiency. Despite advancements in various prediction models, existing approaches often struggle to capture the complex, nonlinear relationships between temperature variations and electricity consumption. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel hybrid deep learning model that integrates Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks with an attention mechanism designed to forecast day-ahead electricity demand in Australia. This research aims to enhance the accuracy of electricity demand predictions by effectively modeling the impact of heating degree days (HDDs) and cooling degree days (CDDs) on energy usage. The HDDs and CDDs capture extreme weather conditions. They are critical for understanding spikes in energy consumption for heating and cooling needs. The proposed model leverages the strengths of CNNs in extracting spatial features in HDDs and CDDs, LSTMs in capturing temporal dependencies, and the attention mechanism in focusing on the most relevant aspects of the data. This study compares the CNN-LSTM-Attention model with traditional methods, including Deep Neural Networks, and demonstrates superior performance. The results show a significant reduction in both Mean Absolute Error and Mean Absolute Percentage Error, confirming the model’s effectiveness. The primary contribution of this paper lies in the novel integration of CDD and HDD data within the CNN-LSTM framework, which has not been extensively explored in prior studies. This approach offers a robust solution for energy management, particularly in climates with significant temperature fluctuations.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/7/3829electricity demandpredictionheating degree dayscooling degree daysdeep learningConvolutional Neural Network (CNN)
spellingShingle Laial Alsmadi
Gang Lei
Li Li
Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism
Applied Sciences
electricity demand
prediction
heating degree days
cooling degree days
deep learning
Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)
title Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism
title_full Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism
title_fullStr Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism
title_full_unstemmed Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism
title_short Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Demand in Australia Using a CNN-LSTM Model with an Attention Mechanism
title_sort forecasting day ahead electricity demand in australia using a cnn lstm model with an attention mechanism
topic electricity demand
prediction
heating degree days
cooling degree days
deep learning
Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/7/3829
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AT ganglei forecastingdayaheadelectricitydemandinaustraliausingacnnlstmmodelwithanattentionmechanism
AT lili forecastingdayaheadelectricitydemandinaustraliausingacnnlstmmodelwithanattentionmechanism