Power-system time-series forecasting increasingly involves diverse forecasting entities
heterogeneous data sources
and complex operational constraints. Large language models (LLMs) and time-series foundation models (TSFMs) offer new approaches to cross-entity reuse
zero- and few-shot adaptation
multimodal fusion
and forecasting workflow coordination
yet the sources of their gains and their applicability remain unclear. This paper classifies existing methods by their knowledge sources and roles in the forecasting pipeline into text-pre-trained LLMs
LLM-based time-series adaptation methods
native TSFMs
multimodal forecasting models
and tool-enabled agents. These methods are reviewed in terms of capability requirements
key techniques
application scenarios
and evidence of effectiveness. Current evidence suggests that their main value lies in cross-entity reuse
rapid adaptation
the use of external information
and probabilistic forecasting. The independent contribution of language pre-training to purely numerical tasks still requires controlled validation; zero-shot TSFM performance depends on pre-training data and target-domain shifts; and multimodal gains depend on whether external information is genuinely available at forecasting time. Future work should strengthen cross-region and cross-entity validation and jointly evaluate probabilistic calibration
physical and hierarchical consistency
resource costs
and operational value under fixed downstream decision models.
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Related Author
Jinying ZHANG
Zhefeng WANG
Hua XIE
Changying YAO
Yanli MIN
XINYing WANG
Related Institution
Guodian Electric Power Development Co., Ltd.
Guoneng Information Control Interconnection Technology Co., Ltd.
Tongfang Knowledge Network Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd.
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University