A Study on Predicting North Korea's Electricity Generation Using Satellite Nighttime Light Data

초록

Electrical energy is a key source of energy for modern civilization, and changes in electricity generation and consumption are closely related to industry and life in general. In this study, we identified the correlation between electricity generation and nighttime light values in South Korea and used it to predict monthly electricity generation trends in North Korea. The results of the study showed a low Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.34 between nighttime light and electricity generation in Seoul, but a high Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.79 between weighting for Seoul case nighttime light values and electricity generation using monthly average temperature. Using nighttime light values weighting for Seoul case by the average monthly temperature in Pyongyang to predict the monthly power generation trend in North Korea, we found that the month-on-month power generation increase in December 2022 was about 60% higher than the month-on-month power generation increase in December 2020 and 2021. The results of this study are expected to help predict monthly electricity generation trends in regions where monthly electricity generation data does not exist, making it difficult to identify timely industry trends.

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