An improved Rao-1 algorithm for parameter estimation of photovoltaic models

The efficient operation of the solar photovoltaic (PV) system is influenced by the accurate determination of its model parameters. The appropriate selection of these parameters is a challenging task due to the multi-modality and non-linearity of the problem. Given less sensitivity to initial solutions and the powerful search capability, many metaheuristic algorithms have been successfully applied to estimate the unknown parameters of PV cell/module models. However, most used techniques are time-consuming, control parameters tuning, etc. This paper proposes an improved Rao-1 (IRao-1) algorithm for efficiently and accurately extracting the PV system parameters. IRao-1 is a new variant of the Rao-1 algorithm, which improves the global search ability of the Rao-1 algorithm by implementing three new search equations. The modification introduced in Rao-1 does not affect its structural simplicity. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated using several PV models, including PV cells (single diode and double diode) and three PV modules. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of IRao-1 in study cases in terms of efficiency and accuracy by comparing it with recent works.