Long-term electricity forecasting for the industrial sector in western China under the carbon peaking and carbon neutral targets

To reflect the future electricity demand variations in the industrial sector of western China under the "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutral" strategies, that the traditional methods of electricity consumption forecasting are no longer effective, this paper proposes a new hierarchy of electricity demand influencing factors based on the transition path of low-carbon and CO2 emission intensity constraints of the industrial sector. Then, the feedback equations of the influencing factors based on CO2 emission intensity is constructed, and a long-term electricity forecast model based on system dynamics is established. Finally, taking Ningxia Province as an example, the electricity demand and carbon emissions of the industrial sector are predicted under different policy constraint scenarios. The results show: (1) In the baseline scenario, electricity demand will tend to saturate with about 140.1TWh in 2030, and the CO2 emission level of electricity demand will peak at 72.52 million tons in 2029. (2) Compared with the system dynamics model without considering CO2 emission intensity, the mean absolute percentage error is reduced about 3.16 % by inputting the influence factors and regression coefficients designed in this paper. (3) Compared with other forecasting methods, the model proposed in this paper has the lowest mean absolute percentage error of 2.75 %. The model improves the accuracy and provides a reference for planning departments to develop energy transition plans, where the prediction results reflect the reality of the industrial sector in western China. Correspondingly, this model has reference value for relevant institutions in forecasting the electricity demand under the low-carbon development path in industrial sectors of different regions.