Machine Learning Modeling for Energy Consumption of Residential and Commercial Sectors

Energy has a strategic role in the economic and social development of countries. In the last few decades, energy demand has been increasing exponentially across the world, and predicting energy demand has become one of the main concerns in many countries. The residential and commercial sectors constitute about 34.7% of global energy consumption. Anticipating energy demand in these sectors will help governments to supply energy sources and to develop their sustainable energy plans such as using renewable and non-renewable energy potentials for the development of a secure and environmentally friendly energy system. Modeling energy consumption in the residential and commercial sectors enables identification of the influential economic, social, and technological factors, resulting in a secure level of energy supply. In this paper, we forecast residential and commercial energy demands in Iran using three different machine learning methods, including multiple linear regression, logarithmic multiple linear regression methods, and nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input artificial neural networks. These models are developed based on several factors, including the share of renewable energy sources in final energy consumption, gross domestic production, population, natural gas price, and the electricity price. According to the results of the three machine learning methods applied in our study, by 2040, Iranian residential and commercial energy consumption will be 76.97, 96.42 and 128.09 Mtoe, respectively. Results show that Iran must develop and implement new policies to increase the share of renewable energy supply in final energy consumption.