Improved Harris Hawks Optimization for Configuration of PV Intelligent Edge Terminals

Photovoltaics intelligent edge terminals (PV IETs) are new devices for data acquisition and management of PV power station. However, due to the massive, scattered, and disordered nature of PV stations and the expensive price of PV IET, installing a PV IET at each PV station has prohibited for large-scale adoption. Therefore, to reduce the life cycle cost of PV IET in a region, this paper proposes an optimal configuration method for PV IET. We propose a mathematical model for the optimal configuration of PV IETs. For a given regional grid, the model aims to obtain the optimal number and location of PV IETs and the connection mode between PV IETs and PV power stations. In addition, an improved Harris hawk optimization (IHHO) is proposed to solve the nonlinear mathematical model. A case study is carried out under different problem sizes, boundary and devices parameters. The simulation results show that under different case, the PV IET configuration method in this paper can obtain lower life cycle cost than the conventional method, and IHHO has higher solution accuracy than other algorithms. The optimal configuration method in this article can effectively solve the problem of the optimal configuration of PV IET.