## 2.6 Scatterplots

The graphs discussed so far are useful for visualizing individual time series. It is also useful to explore relationships between time series.

Figure 2.7 shows two time series: half-hourly electricity demand (in GigaWatts) and temperature (in degrees Celsius), for 2014 in Victoria, Australia. The temperatures are for Melbourne, the largest city in Victoria, while the demand values are for the entire state.

month.breaks <- cumsum(c(0,31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31)*48)
autoplot(elecdemand[,c(1,3)], facet=TRUE) +
xlab("Year: 2014") + ylab("") +
ggtitle("Half-hourly electricity demand: Victoria, Australia") +
scale_x_continuous(breaks=2014+month.breaks/max(month.breaks),
minor_breaks=NULL, labels=c(month.abb,month.abb[1]))

We can study the relationship between demand and temperature by plotting one series against the other.

qplot(Temperature, Demand, data=as.data.frame(elecdemand)) +
ylab("Demand (GW)") + xlab("Temperature (Celsius)")

This scatterplot helps us to visualize the relationship between the variables. It is clear that high demand occurs when temperatures are high due to the effect of air-conditioning. But there is also a heating effect, where demand increases for very low temperatures.