  This paper investigates the fundamental coupling between loads and locational
marginal prices (LMPs) in security-constrained economic dispatch (SCED).
Theoretical analysis based on multi-parametric programming theory points out
the unique one-to-one mapping between load and LMP vectors. Such one-to-one
mapping is depicted by the concept of system pattern region (SPR) and
identifying SPRs is the key to understanding the LMP-load coupling. Built upon
the characteristics of SPRs, the SPR identification problem is modeled as a
classification problem from a market participant's viewpoint, and a Support
Vector Machine based data-driven approach is proposed. It is shown that even
without the knowledge of system topology and parameters, the SPRs can be
estimated by learning from historical load and price data. Visualization and
illustration of the proposed data-driven approach are performed on a 3-bus
system as well as the IEEE 118-bus system.
