Towards the Development of an Uncertainty Quantification Protocol for the Natural Gas Industry
This work addresses the need for reliable uncertainty estimates in simulations for the natural gas industry, but it is incremental as it focuses on protocol development rather than novel methods.
The paper tackles the lack of uncertainty quantification in machine learning and mechanistic models used for decision-making in the natural gas industry by developing a protocol to assess and propagate uncertainties, applying it to test cases to establish credible bounds on predictions.
Simulations using machine learning (ML) models and mechanistic models are often run to inform decision-making processes. Uncertainty estimates of simulation results are critical to the decision-making process because simulation results of specific scenarios may have wide, but unspecified, confidence bounds that may impact subsequent analyses and decisions. The objective of this work is to develop a protocol to assess uncertainties in predictions of machine learning and mechanistic simulation models. The protocol will outline an uncertainty quantification workflow that may be used to establish credible bounds of predictability on computed quantities of interest and to assess model sufficiency. The protocol identifies key sources of uncertainties in machine learning and mechanistic modeling, defines applicable methods of uncertainty propagation for these sources, and includes statistically rational estimators for output uncertainties. The work applies the protocol to test cases relevant to the gas distribution industry and presents learnings from its application. The paper concludes with a brief discussion outlining a pathway to the wider adoption of uncertainty quantification within the industry