Systems and methods for forecasting variable irrigation electricity needs and curtailing agricultural irrigation

A method for use in forecasting electrical load needs including electrical irrigation needs for a region, the method comprising:

• receiving, via a communication circuit by a trained machine learning model stored on a non-transitory storage medium and executable by a control circuit, forecast environmental data corresponding to a region, the region including a plurality of properties that will use electrical load for irrigation of plant life in the region, the electrical load due to an operation of at least an electrical pump of irrigation equipment at each of the plurality of properties, wherein a computer includes the control circuit and the communication circuit, and wherein the trained machine learning model is trained using historical environmental data and historical irrigation load data;
• determining, using a random forest algorithm, a day-ahead forecast electrical load needed for the irrigation in the region;
• transmitting a communication, the communication configured to cause the day-ahead forecast electrical load needed for the irrigation in the region to be displayed to a user;
• determining a difference between the day-ahead forecast electrical load needed for the irrigation in the region and an actual electrical load used for the irrigation in the region on a forecast day;
• obtaining actual environmental data corresponding to the region for the forecast day;
• and
• applying the difference and the actual environmental data to the random forest algorithm to adjust the trained machine learning model for future forecasts of the day-ahead forecast electrical load needed for the irrigation in the region.

A system for energy management comprising:

• a first control circuit configured to:
• determine, using a trained machine learning model, a forecast of electrical load needed for irrigation in a region, the region including a plurality of properties that will use electrical load for irrigation of plant life in the region, the electrical load due to the operation of at least an electrical pump;
• a second control circuit configured to:
• determine that a shortfall in an available electrical load for the region will likely occur;
• determine, for a first property, an adjustment to irrigation at the first property;
• cause, in the event the first property has previously opted in to automatic irrigation adjustments, a signal to be transmitted to an irrigation control device at the first property to cause a change in electrical load usage for the irrigation at the first property;
• cause, in the event the first property has not previously opted in to automatic irrigation adjustments, a signal to be transmitted to a user interface associated with the first property and to cause the user interface to present the adjustment to a user, wherein the adjustment will cause the change in electrical load usage for the irrigation at the first property if adopted;
• and
• determine whether the user adopted the adjustment at the first property.