LAUSR

In this article, a nature-inspired optimization method, based on the water cycle, is implemented for optimal control of a solar photovoltaic microgrid with battery storage. The water cycle optimization is used to tune the parameters of the proportional-integral controllers in the regulation of the battery current and the dc-link voltage. In order to implement the optimization algorithm, the microgrid model is developed and simulated to carry out the cost function to be minimized in the optimization process. The optimization is conducted using different performance indices. The optimized control parameters are validated on a simulated microgrid and an experimental setup. Simulation and experimental results are provided and compared to genetic algorithms and a conventional tuning method to demonstrate the effectiveness of the water cycle technique.