A new hybrid moth flame optimizer-perturb and observe method for maximum power point tracking in photovoltaic energy system

Abstract

In this chapter, a new hybrid moth flame optimizer-perturb and observe method that is called HMFOPO is used to solve the MPPT problem for PV energy system in order to provide an optimal response due to achieving the maximum PV module power. In the proposed scheme, by using the MFO optimization method, the photovoltaic curve is investigated and then the P&O method is implemented by starting from the position of the best moth of the MFO algorithm. Therefore, a combination of MFO and P&O methods joins the derived intelligence from MFO with the fast convergence of P&O to form a proper method with high speed, accuracy, and efficiency due to solving MPPT problem. By using the HMFOPO method, search variables are considered as voltage and the objective function including the power of the PV system is optimized by evaluating the power-voltage curve that should be sampled online. In this study, by considering the conditions of rapid changes and PSC, the efficiency of the PV module is investigated. There are also different scenarios to verify the performance of the proposed method under standard situations, rapid change conditions, and partial shade exploitation. The capability of HMFOPO in different scenarios such as standard condition and various patterns of partial shading from different perspectives such as the efficiency and convergence speed are investigated, and the results are compared with the obtained results from P&O and MFO methods. The simulation results show that the proposed hybrid method benefits higher speed and convergence efficiency in solving the MPPT problem and reaching the GMPP and extracts more power from the PV system.