Predicting PV self-consumption in villas with machine learning

Abstract: In Sweden, there is a strong and growing interest in solar power. In recent years, photovoltaic (PV) system installations have increased dramatically and a large part are distributed grid connected PV systems i.e. rooftop installations. Currently the electricity export rate is significantly lower than the import rate which has made the amount of self-consumed PV electricity a critical factor when assessing the system profitability. Self-consumption (SC) is calculated using hourly or sub-hourly timesteps and is highly dependent on the solar patterns of the location of interest, the PV system configuration and the building load. As this varies for all potential installations it is difficult to make estimations without having historical data of both load and local irradiance, which is often hard to acquire or not available. A method to predict SC using commonly available information at the planning phase is therefore preferred.  There is a scarcity of documented SC data and only a few reports treating the subject of mapping or predicting SC. Therefore, this thesis is investigating the possibility of utilizing machine learning to create models able to predict the SC using the inputs: Annual load, annual PV production, tilt angle and azimuth angle of the modules, and the latitude. With the programming language Python, seven models are created using regression techniques, using real load data and simulated PV data from the south of Sweden, and evaluated using coefficient of determination (R2) and mean absolute error (MAE). The techniques are Linear Regression, Polynomial regression, Ridge Regression, Lasso regression, K-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), Random Forest, Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), as well as the only other SC prediction model found in the literature. A parametric analysis of the models is conducted, removing one variable at a time to assess the model’s dependence on each variable.  The results are promising, with five out of eight models achieving an R2 value above 0.9 and can be considered good for predicting SC. The best performing model, Random Forest, has an R2 of 0.985 and a MAE of 0.0148. The parametric analysis also shows that while more input data is helpful, using only annual load and PV production is sufficient to make good predictions. This can only be stated for model performance for the southern region of Sweden, however, and are not applicable to areas outside the latitudes or country tested.