Dr. Monforte’s Retirement Brown Bag: The Past, Present and Future of Operational Load Forecasting

Join us for one last special addition webinar to wrap up 2024 where Dr. Frank A. Monforte will present the past, current and future of operational load forecasting in his retirement brown bag. Over the past 45 years, Dr. Monforte has experienced advances in computing power from HP calculators to today’s mass computing Data Centers. Despite the lighting fast evolution of computing power and its promise of untethered computer intelligence, the “art” of Operational Load Forecasting remains in the hands of a small cadre of talented professionals. To understand the daunting task that lies ahead, it is important to understand the path that has led us to today. The power industry faces a “fork in the road” as mass deployment of unmetered generation, storage and load control obscures true demand for power resulting in a chaotic measurement of load. The way forward depends on whether Operational Load Forecasters can accurately account for behind-the-meter activity. If not, then traditional operational load forecast models and methods that were developed based on a deep understanding of the factors that drive demand for power will start to fail and the industry will be forced to adapt to load forecasts that are increasingly fraught with error. The alternative fork embraces the increasing load volatility leading to system operations and operational forecasting frameworks that work within the bounds of an ever-widening chaotic load series.