Assessing the Propagation of Weather Forecast Errors into Power Outage Predictions

Reliable power systems are essential to modern life, as severe storms continue to disrupt grid stability and cause widespread outages. Predicting storm outages enables utilities and emergency managers to pre-stage resources and improve resilience. However, the several days of forecast lead time typically needed for preparedness significantly affect the accuracy of outage predictions. This study investigates the impact of forecast lead time on the error propagation of a Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM)-based outage prediction model (OPM) driven by Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model forecasts and analysis predictions. We evaluate three error-analysis scenarios: FFAP (forecast vs. analysis-based outage predictions), FFAO (forecast vs. actual outages), and LFAO (leave-one-storm-out forecast vs. actual outages). Model performance is compared using Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) and Centered Root-Mean-Square Error (CRMSE) across short (12 h–1 d), medium (2–3 d), and long (4–5 d) forecast lead-time categories, with the long category representing the upper end of the medium-range forecast window relevant to operational preparedness. The results show that forecast lead time substantially affects outage prediction accuracy, but the magnitude depends on the evaluation setup. In the controlled FFAP scenario, CRMSE increased by approximately 110% as lead time increased, from 259 to 543 outages, isolating the effect of weather forecast degradation. In the more operational LFAO scenario, CRMSE was already high at short lead times, increasing from 847 to 920 outages, indicating that model generalization error dominates once storms are unseen. Across scenarios, LFAO errors were 51% higher than FFAO errors at short lead times, highlighting the importance of testing outage models under unseen-event conditions. These results quantify how forecast degradation and model generalization jointly shape the reliability of outage prediction and provide practical guidance for lead-time-aware storm preparedness.