Forecasting electricity generation from renewable sources during a pandemic

Previsão da geração de eletricidade a partir de fontes renováveis durante uma pandemia

Abstract

Renewable sources are responsible for more than half of Brazilian electric generation, which basically correspond to hydropower, biomass and wind sources. This research aimed to verify if the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models present good performance in predicting electricity generation from biomass, hydropower and wind power for the first months of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. The best forecasting models adjusted for biomass, hydropower and wind generation was the SARIMA, since this model was able to identify seasonal effects of climatic instability, such as periods of drought. Based on the seasonality of the largest generating sources, renewable generation needs to be offset by other sources, as non-renewable, and more efforts are needed to make Brazilian electric matrix more sustainable.

Keywords:
ARIMA models; Renewable sources; Time series; COVID-19