An efficient CHA-WMA control strategy for a non-isolated quasi-Z-source novel multilevel inverter-based grid connected PV system

This manuscript proposes a hybrid approach for non-isolated quasi Z-source (QZS)-novel cascaded multilevel inverter (NIQZS-NMLI)-based grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system. The proposed hybrid approach is the combined execution of both the color harmony algorithm (CHA) and woodpecker-mating algorithm (WMA), and hence it is called CHA-WMA method. Initially, the NIQZS-NMLI design is developed to gain the optimal control signal using the proposed controller. The NIQZS-NMLI is developed with the reduced count of switches, diodes, and sources. The major objective of the proposed method is "to satisfy the load power requirement and to maintain the power regulation or maximum energy conversion of the wind and solar subsystems." The proposed method strictly prohibits the variations present in the output voltage of the NIQZS-NMLI. Here, the CHA is employed to evaluate the optimal gain parameters in light of the source currents variety from the normal value, also it is useful for generating the optimum control signals dataset in the offline way. In the online way, the WMA predicts the most optimal control signals of the NIQZS-NMLI in light of the satisfied dataset. The resultant control signals have been utilized for controlling the insulated gate bi-polar switches (IGBT) of NIQZS-NMLI. The proposed method is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink site and the performance is analyzed with existing methods. Moreover, the PV performance is analyzed under three test cases. The PV efficiency of the proposed method for all cases is 89.3975%, 90.2653%, and 97.8095%. Overall, the comparison outcomes demonstrate that the proposed method is more efficient than the other existing methods.