Parameter extraction of photovoltaic generating units using multi-verse optimizer

Parameters of Photovoltaic (PV) are key factors in studying its performance under different atmospheric and loading conditions. In a normal practice, PV datasheets usually state three points on current-voltage (I-V) characteristic of the given PV model at standard test conditions. In this paper, the five parameters of the single diode model of PV cells are extracted by using the Multi-verse optimization (MVO) metaheuristic approach. A conventional approximate mathematical method is first used to find initial values of the five unknown parameters. At this moment, MVO-based methodology is applied to generate the optimal values of the PV solar cell parameters. The best (optimal) five parameters obtained are used to simulate the behavior of PV cells under various conditions including sun irradiance and temperature variations. The efficacy of the proposed method is confirmed by comparing its realized numerical results to an approximate mathematical method and recent heuristic-based approaches. Identified parameters generated by the proposed MVO-based method are well-matched with actual experimental data and the given specifications by vendor's datasheets which signifies the proposed methodology.