System identification-informed transparent and explainable machine learning with application to power consumption forecasting

System identification (SysID) is the art and science of dealing with dynamic data modelling problems from systems science perspectives. It has been an active field and is still very active today, due to its wide range of applications, especially its basic principles of finding transparent, interpretable and parsimonious models for different purposes. The past decades have witnessed the explosive growth in machine learning (ML) and its applications in all areas of science and engineering. Meanwhile, there has been an increasing demand for the development of transparent, explainable and/or interpretable ML models. This paper proposes a new framework for developing System Identification-informed Transparent and Explainable MAchine Learning (SITEMAL) models. A case study, involving a real power consumption dataset, is presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed modelling framework and its performance for power consumption forecasting.