Super‐evolutionary mechanism and Nelder‐Mead simplex enhanced salp swarm algorithm for photovoltaic model parameter estimation

Abstract In the pursuit of enhancing the efficiency of solar cells, accurate estimation of unspecified parameters in the solar photovoltaic (PV) cell model is imperative. An advanced salp swarm algorithm called the Super‐Evolutionary Nelder‐Mead Salp Swarm Algorithm (SENMSSA) is proposed to achieve this objective. The proposed SENMSSA addresses the limitations of SSA by incorporating a super‐evolutionary mechanism based on a Gaussian‐Cauchy mutation and a vertical and horizontal crossover mechanism. This mechanism enhances both the global optimization capabilities and the local search performance and convergence speed of the algorithm. It enables a secondary refinement of the global optimum, unlocking untapped potential in the solution space near the global optimum and elevating the algorithm's precision and exploitation capabilities to higher levels. The Nelder‐Mead simplex method is further introduced to enhance local search capabilities and convergence accuracy. The Nelder‐Mead simplex method is a versatile optimization algorithm that improves local search by iteratively adjusting a geometric shape (simplex) of points. It operates without needing derivatives, making it suitable for non‐smooth or complex objective functions. To assess the efficacy of SENMSSA, a comparative analysis is conducted against other available algorithms, namely SSA, IWOA, SCADE, LWOA, CBA, and RCBA, using the CEC2014 benchmark function set. Subsequently, the algorithm was employed to determine the unknown PV parameters under fixed conditions for three different diode models. Additionally, SENMSSA is utilized to estimate PV parameters for three commercially available PV models (ST40, SM55, KC200GT) under varying conditions. The experimental results indicate that the SENMSSA proposed in this study displays a remarkably competitive performance in all test cases compared to other algorithms. As such, we consider that the SENMSSA algorithm constitutes a reliable and efficient solution for the challenge of PV parameter estimation.