Parameters extraction of photovoltaic models using an improved moth-flame optimization

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) models’ parameter extraction with the tested current-voltage values is vital for the optimization, control, and evaluation of the PV systems. To reliably and accurately extract their parameters, this paper presents one improved moths-flames optimization (IMFO) method. In the IMFO, a double flames generation (DFG) strategy is proposed to generate two different types of target flames for guiding the flying of moths. Furthermore, two different update strategies are developed for updating the positions of moths. To greatly balance the exploitation and exploration, we adopt a probability to rationally select one of the two update strategies for each moth at each iteration. The proposed IMFO is used to distinguish the parameter of three test PV models including single diode model (SDM), double diode model (DDM), and PV module model (PMM). The results indicate that, compared with other well-established methods, the proposed IMFO can obtain an extremely promising performance.