Data preprocessing and quantile regression for probabilistic load forecasting in the GEFCom2017 final match

Team QUINKAN competed in the GEFCom2017 final match of hierarchical probabilistic load forecasting by adopting the quantile regression method using the R package quantreg. The weather stations were clustered into 11 groups, from which an optimal one was chosen for each load meter using the boosting method. The load meter records were cleaned and/or supplemented by various methods in order to secure robust quantile predictions. The variation in the regression formulas was kept as small as possible by introducing measures for suppressing prediction instability, although special formulas were employed for loading meters that were of an industrial nature. Several procedures were applied to help improve the accuracy, such as the smoothing of season transitions, coarse graining of the relative humidity, the use of load-oriented day-type definition, the averaging of weather data, and outlier removal.