CUDA-bigPSF: An optimized version of bigPSF accelerated with Graphics Processing Unit

Abstract

Accurate and fast short-term load forecasting is crucial in efficiently managing energy production and distribution. As such, many different algorithms have been proposed to address this topic, including hybrid models that combine clustering with other forecasting techniques. One of these algorithms is bigPSF, an algorithm that combines K-means clustering and a similarity search optimized for its use in distributed environments. The work presented in this paper aims to improve the time required to execute the algorithm with two main contributions. First, some of the issues of the original proposal that limited the number of cores simultaneously used are studied and highlighted. Second, a version of the algorithm optimized for Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is proposed, solving the previously mentioned issues while taking into account the GPU architecture and memory structure. Experimentation was done with seven years of real-world electric demand data from Uruguay. Results show that the proposed algorithm executed consistently faster than the original version, achieving speedups up to 500 times faster during the training phase.