AUTHOR=Liu Hui , Chen Qian , Zhang Di , Wang Haiyun , Zhao Xinchen , Zhang Zaichi , Fu Lei , Wang Wei , Chen Sizhuang TITLE=BLformer: a short-term electrical bus load forecasting method based on enhanced Patch-TSTransformer JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2025 YEAR=2025 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2025.1622991 DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2025.1622991 ISSN=2296-598X ABSTRACT=This study addresses the challenges in short-term electrical bus load forecasting. We propose a novel BLformer framework based on an enhanced Patch-TSTransformer. The framework quantifies the importance of temporal features across three load types and filters key input dimensions to reduce redundant information interference. A sparse attention mechanism is designed to dynamically allocate computational resources, balancing efficiency and robustness. Innovatively, we integrate DCNN into the Patch-TST module, combining the advantages of local feature extraction and global temporal modeling to enhance the learning capability of time-frequency coupling characteristics. Furthermore, a coupled prediction strategy is developed to explore high-accuracy bus load forecasting models that incorporate multiple heterogeneous loads. Experiments demonstrate that BLformer significantly outperforms baseline models in terms of RMSE and MAPE metrics. Notably, the indirect prediction strategy substantially reduces errors compared to direct prediction, validating its effective learning ability for multi-load characteristics.