With deregulation, and the change in market structure,
the prediction of load and supply requirements has also
become important to utilities in order to optimize the
scheduling and supply contracts, and thus is of impor-
tance to the financial success of the company. In the
derYpulated market, a good short-term load forecast is
of major importance to the hourly, daily and weekly
forward planning, and becomes an integral part of the
operational and financial business process of the utility.