BigDEAL Challenge 2022: Forecasting peak timing of electricity demand

Abstract

Peak load forecasting is crucial to power system planning and operations. While the literature has reported many studies on forecasting the magnitude of peak load, few have focused on the timing aspect. In the fall of 2022, the Big Data Energy Analytics Laboratory (BigDEAL) organised the BigDEAL Challenge 2022, which was devoted to short-term ex-ante peak timing forecasting. The competition attracted 78 teams formed by 121 contestants from 27 countries. The authors introduce the competition in detail, including its precursor competitions held in the 2010s, the framework and setup, and a summary of the methods used by the participants. The authors also publish the data of the BigDEAL Challenge 2022 along with this paper. Lastly, the authors present their perspective on the research challenges of peak timing forecasting and future load forecasting competitions.