Dolphin echolocation algorithm for optimal sizing of grid-connected photovoltaic system

Despite being used as large-scale power plant, a common issue of photovoltaic system being connected to the grid is the system sizing. As numerous models of system components are commercially available, the selection of optimal components has frequently become tedious and time consuming for system designers. Hence, optimization methods are regularly incorporated in the sizing algorithm for such system. This paper presents the introduction of dolphin echolocation for sizing a photovoltaic system. The optimal combination of inverter and PV module was chosen such that the system's net present value was correspondingly optimized. The results showed that the Dolphin Echolocation Algorithm-based sizing algorithm had outperformed sizing algorithms using selected computational intelligence, i.e. Evolutionary Programming, Firefly Algorithm and Cuckoo Search in producing the lowest elapsed time and highest net present value.