Computational Intelligent methods for Selective Harmonic Elimination in Cascaded Multilevel Inverter

Harmonics in power electronic converters adversely affect the power quality, leading to increased losses in electric power systems and devices. These harmonic distortions, caused by nonlinear loads, introduce voltage and current waveform distortions, reduce system efficiency, and contribute to equipment malfunctions. This paper presents a computationally intelligent method using the Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA) to solve the selective harmonic elimination (SHE) equations for an 11-level cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter (CHBMLI). The WCA is compared with metaheuristic-based computational methods, such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) and Firefly Algorithm (FA). The WCA demonstrates faster convergence and robustness against local optima as compared to other methods. The results indicate that the WCA outperforms the benchmark methods in terms of convergence speed, achieving optimal solutions in fewer iterations. This makes the WCA a highly effective tool for harmonic elimination in multilevel inverters, offering enhanced power quality and computational efficiency in high-power applications.