Forecasting Demand for Electricity: Some Methodological Issues and an Analysis

Electricity demand projection is of utmost importance as electricity has become a vital input to the wellbeing of any society, driving the demand for it from an ever-expanding set of diverse needs to grow on an increasing rate, which in turn places increasing demands on scarce resources of capital investment, material means, and man-power. More specifically, the continuing ‘energy crisis’ has made crucial the need for accurate projection of electricity demand; hence the importance of the forecasting methods. The present paper critically evaluates the electricity demand forecasting methodology and proposes a methodology in the classical time series framework.