*Article* **Horse Herd Optimized Intelligent Controller for Sustainable PV Interface Grid-Connected System: A Qualitative Approach**

**Anupama Ganguly 1, Pabitra Kumar Biswas <sup>1</sup> , Chiranjit Sain 2, Ahmad Taher Azar 3,4,5,\* , Ahmed Redha Mahlous 3,4 and Saim Ahmed <sup>4</sup>**


**Abstract:** The need for energy is always increasing as civilization evolves. Renewable energy sources are crucial for meeting energy demands as conventional fuel resources are slowly running out. Researchers are working to extract the most amount of power possible from renewable resources. Numerous resources are in demand, including solar, wind, biomass, tidal, and geothermal resources. Solar energy outperformed all the aforementioned resources in terms of efficiency, cleanliness, and pollution freeness. Intermittency, however, is the resource's main shortcoming. Maximum power point tracking algorithm (MPPT) integration is required for the system to achieve continuous optimum power by overcoming the feature of intermittency. However, generating electrical energy from solar energy has presented a significant problem in ensuring the output power's quality within a reasonable range. Total harmonic distortion (THD), a phenomenon, may have an impact on the power quality. Depending on the properties of the load, variables like power factor, voltage sag/swell, frequency, and unbalancing may occur. The quality of power and its criterion exhibits a non-linear connection. The article's primary objective is to analyze the PV interface grid-linked system's qualitative and quantitative performance. With respect to varying solar irradiation conditions, partial shading conditions, and solar power quality within the acceptable dimension, a novel intelligent multipleobjective horse herd optimization (HHO)-based adaptive fractional order PID (HHO-AFOPID) controller is used to achieve this goal. Adaptive fractional order PID (AFOPID), conventional FOPID, and PID controllers were used to evaluate the performance of the suggested controller, which was then validated using a commercially available PV panel in MATLAB/Simulink by varying the productivity of non-conventional resources, the inverter's level of uncertainty, and the potential at the grid's end. In order to realize the features of the system, sensitivity examination is also carried out for solar energy's sensitive parameters. The stability analysis of the proposed control topology is also carried out in terms of the integral absolute error (IAE) and integral time absolute error (ITAE). The examination of the sensitivity of variations in solar radiation in kilowatt per square meter per day is based on the total net present cost (TNPC) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE), as optimal dimension and energy cost are both aspects of priority. The suggested control methodology is an approach for the qualitative and quantitative performance analysis of a PV interface grid-oriented system.

**Keywords:** horse herd optimization; adaptive fractional order PID controller; sensitivity analysis; power quality and quantity analysis; maximum power point tracking

**Citation:** Ganguly, A.; Biswas, P.K.; Sain, C.; Azar, A.T.; Mahlous, A.R.; Ahmed, S. Horse Herd Optimized Intelligent Controller for Sustainable PV Interface Grid-Connected System: A Qualitative Approach. *Sustainability* **2023**, *15*, 11160. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su151411160

Academic Editors: Prince Winston David and Praveen Kumar B

Received: 27 May 2023 Revised: 6 July 2023 Accepted: 7 July 2023 Published: 18 July 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
