Medium-term electricity consumption and load forecasting in smart grids is an attractive topic of study, especially using innovative data analysis approaches for future energy consumption trends. Loss of electricity during generation and use is also a problem to be addressed. Both consumers and utilities can benefit from a predictive study of electricity demand and pricing. In this study, we used a new machine learning approach called AdaBoost to identify key features from an ISO-NE dataset that includes daily consumption data over eight years. Moreover, the DT classifier and RF are widely used to extract the best features from the dataset. Moreover, we predicted the electricity load and price using machine learning techniques including support vector machine (SVM) and deep learning techniques such as a convolutional neural network (CNN). Coronavirus herd immunity optimization (CHIO), a novel optimization approach, was used to modify the hyperparameters to increase efficiency, and it used classifiers to improve the performance of our classifier. By adding additional layers to the CNN and fine-tuning its parameters, the probability of overfitting the classifier was reduced. For method validation, we compared our proposed models with several benchmarks. MAE, MAPE, MSE, RMSE, the f1 score, recall, precision, and accuracy were the measures used for performance evaluation. Moreover, seven different forms of statistical analysis were given to show why our proposed approaches are preferable. The proposed CNN-CHIO and SVM techniques had the lowest MAPE error rates of 6% and 8%, respectively, and the highest accuracy rates of 95% and 92%, respectively.

In smart grid, energy management is an indispensable for reducing energy cost of consumers while maximizing user comfort and alleviating the peak to average ratio and carbon emission under real time pricing approach. In contrast, the emergence of bidirectional communication and power transfer technology enables electric vehicles (EVs) charging/discharging scheduling, load shifting/scheduling, and optimal energy sharing, making the power grid smart. With this motivation, efficient energy management model for a microgrid with ant colony optimization algorithm to systematically schedule load and EVs charging/discharging of is introduced. The smart microgrid is equipped with controllable appliances, photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, electrolyzer, hydrogen tank, and energy storage system. Peak load, peak to average ratio, cost, energy cost, and carbon emission operation of appliances are reduced by the charging/discharging of electric vehicles, and energy storage systems are scheduled using real time pricing tariffs. This work also predicts wind speed and solar irradiation to ensure efficient energy optimization. Simulations are carried out to validate our developed ant colony optimization algorithm-based energy management scheme. The obtained results demonstrate that the developed efficient energy management model can reduce energy cost, alleviate peak to average ratio, and carbon emission.

The advent of the new millennium, with the promises of the digital age and space technology, favors humankind in every perspective. The technology provides us with electric power and has infinite use in multiple electronic accessories. The electric power produced by different sources is distributed to consumers by the transmission line and grid stations. During the electric transmission from primary sources, there are various methods by which to commit energy theft. Energy theft is a universal electric problem in many countries, with a possible loss of billions of dollars for electric companies. This energy contention is deep rooted, having so many root causes and rugged solutions of a technical nature. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is introduced with no adequate results to control and minimize electric theft. Until now, so many techniques have been applied to overcome this grave problem of electric power theft. Many researchers nowadays use machine learning algorithms, trying to combat this problem, giving better results than previous approaches. Random Forest (RF) classifier gave overwhelmingly good results with high accuracy. In our proposed solution, we use a novel Convolution Neural Network (CNN) with RUSBoost Manta Ray Foraging Optimization (rus-MRFO) and RUSBoost Bird Swarm Algorithm (rus-BSA) models, which proves to be very innovative. The accuracy of our proposed approaches, rus-MRFO and rus-BSA, are 91.5% and a 93.5%, respectively. The proposed techniques have shown promising results and have strong potential to be applied in future.

Agricultural productivity plays a vital role in a country’s economy, which can be increased by providing the proper water needed for crops. Proper water provision ensures suitable moisture and appropriate conditions essential for crops, water resource preservation, minimized water wastage, and energy consumption. However, adequate water provision is challenging due to intermittent and uncertain environmental and weather conditions. On this note, a model with uncertain and stochastic conditions (rain, wet, dry, humidity, and moisture) capturing abilities is needed. Thus, a smart-sensors-based solar-powered system is developed for monitoring and controlling the tube well that ensures proper water provision to crops. The developed system properly checks weather and environmental conditions (rain, temperature, irradiance, humidity, etc.), soil conditions (wet or dry), and crop conditions to monitor and regulate water flow accordingly to minimize water and energy consumption wastage. The developed system is an integrated system of four modules: Arduino with a built-in Atmel AT mega microcontroller, sensors, solar power, and a global system for mobile communication (GSM). The GSM module exchanges acknowledgement messages with the operator and controller about the various statuses, such as weather and environmental conditions, soil conditions (wet or dry), crop conditions, and the toggle status of the motor (OFF, ON/main power supply, or solar power). In order for the controller module to determine the motor state, the sensors module computes many parameters, including rain, wet, dry, humidity, and moisture. In addition, the sensor module also prevents the motor from dry running. The developed smart irrigation system is superior to existing irrigation systems in aspects of water wastage and energy consumption minimization.

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