An Improved Horse Herd Optimization Based Reconfiguration of Solar Photovoltaic Arrays

Photovoltaic (PV) systems face challenges associated with Partial Shading Conditions (PSC) arising from fluctuating climatic conditions. To mitigate the impact of partial shading, solar PV arrays are subjected to reconfiguration. Optimization-based reconfiguration of PV arrays offers several advantages over other methods, such as physical array relocation. This paper introduces a novel approach for the reconfiguration of Photovoltaic (PV) arrays using the Horse Herd Optimization (HHO) algorithm. The HHO algorithm is employed to search the solution space and find the optimal arrangement of solar panels that maximizes energy output while considering practical constraints. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the HHO algorithm in achieving superior reconfigurations compared to traditional optimization methods. The proposed approach is applied on three shading patterns and compared with three existing approaches. The results shows the superiority of the proposed approach.