Advanced hybrid control strategy for a 19-level asymmetrical multilevel inverter in grid-connected hybrid renewable energy systems

To address the need for more efficient control strategies in renewable energy systems with multilevel inverters (MLIs), this study proposes a hybrid control strategy for a 19-level asymmetrical MLI in grid-connected hybrid renewable applications. The hybrid strategy integrates Hippopotamus Optimization (HO) with Wavelet Kolmogorov–Arnold Networks (WKAN) to enhance inverter performance. The primary aim of this method is to minimize power loss and improve the system efficiency and total harmonic distortion (THD). This is accomplished by precisely forecasting the output voltage amplitude using WKAN and effectively optimizing the inverter's switching angles using the HO algorithm. The proposed hybrid control is validated through MATLAB simulations and benchmarked against other hybrid approaches. The proposed strategy attained a THD of 1.5 %, improving power quality, and a low switching loss of 0.04 W and conduction loss of 7.4 W, outperforming existing methods. In terms of predictive ability, the proposed strategy has the highest accuracy of 0.97 over 50 trials and 0.98 over 100 trials, showcasing consistency and reliability. Simulation findings confirm the superiority of the proposed strategy in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and control robustness for grid-connected renewable energy systems.