A novel transfer deep learning model with reinforcement-learning-based hyperparameter optimization for short-term load forecasting during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has significantly impacted the world. The sudden decline in electricity load demand caused by strict social distancing restrictions has made it difficult for traditional models to forecast the load demand during the pandemic. Therefore, in this study, a novel transfer deep learning model with reinforcement-learning-based hyperparameter optimization is proposed for short-term load forecasting during the pandemic. First, a knowledge base containing mobility data is constructed, which can reflect the changes in visitor volume in different regions and buildings based on mobile services. Therefore, the sudden decline in load can be analyzed according to the socioeconomic behavior changes during the pandemic. Furthermore, a new transfer deep learning model is proposed to address the problem of limited mobility data associated with the pandemic. Moreover, reinforcement learning is employed to optimize the hyperparameters of the proposed model automatically, which avoids the manual adjustment of the hyperparameters, thereby maximizing the forecasting accuracy. To enhance the hyperparameter optimization efficiency of the reinforcement-learning agents, a new advance forecasting method is proposed to forecast the state-action values of the state space that have not been traversed. The experimental results on 12 real-world datasets covering different countries and cities demonstrate that the proposed model achieves high forecasting accuracy during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.