Research Article

GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection

Volume: 6 Number: 3 October 27, 2026

GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection

Abstract

Operational electricity forecasting must be accurate, uncertainty-aware, and protected against future-information leakage. This study presents GridMind, an operator-oriented champion-challenger framework combining a forecast-origin feature ledger, Light Gradient Boosting Machine point forecasts, rolling split-conformal intervals, reproducible feature evidence, and an explicit retain-or-replace decision. The framework was evaluated on complementary national datasets from Panama and Spain. For Panama, the exact 14 published 168-hour test weeks and the prescribed 72-hour unseen gap were reproduced. Target-week realized weather was excluded, and only completed-week load lags and known calendar variables were used. The model achieved 4.193% pooled MAPE, 63.796 MWh RMSE, and a 28.26% reduction in mean weekly MAPE relative to a safe 336-hour seasonal-naive benchmark. It improved 11 of 14 weeks; the mean paired improvement was 1.652 percentage points (bootstrap 95% CI 0.670-2.903; one-sided Wilcoxon p=0.002625). Nominal 90% split-conformal intervals attained 89.97% pooled coverage. For Spain, the public operator forecast remained the champion: H2-2018 MAPE was 0.8855%, compared with 0.8947% after forecast-origin-safe residual correction. GridMind therefore provides an auditable pattern for feature availability, accuracy, calibrated uncertainty, and operational model governance without assuming that a machine-learning challenger must replace the incumbent.

Keywords

Supporting Institution

None. No external grant or financial support was received for this study.

Ethical Statement

Ethical approval was not required because the study used openly accessible, non-personal electricity and weather time-series data. Data and code availability are described in the manuscript.

Thanks

The authors acknowledge the providers of the openly accessible electricity and meteorological datasets cited in the manuscript.

References

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Electrical Energy Transmission, Networks and Systems

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

October 27, 2026

Submission Date

August 2, 2026

Acceptance Date

September 7, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 6 Number: 3

APA
Jasim, S. A., & Jasim, S. A. (2026). GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection. Turkish Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, 6(3), 231-240. https://doi.org/10.67047/tepes.2009644
AMA
1.Jasim SA, Jasim SA. GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection. TEPES. 2026;6(3):231-240. doi:10.67047/tepes.2009644
Chicago
Jasim, Sohaib Ayad, and Shuaib Ayad Jasim. 2026. “GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting With Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection”. Turkish Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 6 (3): 231-40. https://doi.org/10.67047/tepes.2009644.
EndNote
Jasim SA, Jasim SA (October 27, 2026) GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection. Turkish Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 6 3 231–240.
IEEE
[1]S. A. Jasim and S. A. Jasim, “GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection”, TEPES, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 231–240, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.67047/tepes.2009644.
ISNAD
Jasim, Sohaib Ayad - Jasim, Shuaib Ayad. “GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting With Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection”. Turkish Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 6/3 (October 27, 2026): 231-240. https://doi.org/10.67047/tepes.2009644.
JAMA
1.Jasim SA, Jasim SA. GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection. TEPES. 2026;6:231–240.
MLA
Jasim, Sohaib Ayad, and Shuaib Ayad Jasim. “GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting With Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection”. Turkish Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 6, no. 3, Oct. 2026, pp. 231-40, doi:10.67047/tepes.2009644.
Vancouver
1.Sohaib Ayad Jasim, Shuaib Ayad Jasim. GridMind: Issue-Time-Safe Cross-Country Load Forecasting with Conformal Uncertainty and Operator-Aware Model Selection. TEPES. 2026 Oct. 27;6(3):231-40. doi:10.67047/tepes.2009644