Deep-Learning-Based Power Generation Forecasting of Thermal Energy Conversion

ORC is a heat to power solution to convert low-grade thermal energy into electricity with relative low cost and adequate efficiency. The working of ORC relies on the liquid-vapor phase changes of certain organic fluid under different temperature and pressure. ORC is a well-established technology utilized in industry to recover industrial waste heat to electricity. However, the frequently varied temperature, pressure, and flow may raise difficulty to maintain a steady power generation from ORC. It is important to develop an effective prediction methodology for power generation in a stable grid system. This study proposes a methodology based on deep learning neural network to the predict power generation from ORC by 12 h in advance. The deep learning neural network is derived from long short-term memory network (LSTM), a type of recurrent neural network (RNN). A case study was conducted through analysis of ORC data from steel company. Different time series methodology including ARIMA and MLP were compared with LSTM in this study and shows the error rate decreased by 24% from LSTM. The proposed methodology can be used to effectively optimize the system warning threshold configuration for the early detection of abnormalities in power generators and a novel approach for early diagnosis in conventional industries.