Received 1 December 2022, accepted 2 January 2023, date of publication 9 January 2023, date of current version 12 January 2023.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3234918

Selective Harmonic Elimination in a Multilevel

Inverter Using Multi-Criteria Search
Enhanced Firefly Algorithm
MUHAMMAD KHIZER 1 , SHEROZE LIAQUAT 2 , (Graduate Student Member, IEEE),
MUHAMMAD FAHAD ZIA 3 , (Member, IEEE), SAIKRISHNA KANUKOLLU 4 ,
AHMED AL-DURRA 4 , (Senior Member, IEEE), AND S. M. MUYEEN 5 , (Senior Member, IEEE)
1 Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
2 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA
3 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, American University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
4 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
5 Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

Corresponding author: S. M. Muyeen ([Link]@[Link])

This work was supported by the Khalifa University.

ABSTRACT This research paper proposes the new multi-criteria search based enhanced firefly algorithm
for solving selective harmonic elimination in a multilevel inverter. This new enhanced firefly utilizes
adaptive nature of social and cognitive components to find the global optima. To see the effectiveness of
the proposed algorithm and for the evaluation of results, a three phase nine level cascaded multilevel inverter
is used. It is compared with existing meta-heuristic algorithms namely particle swarm optimization and
firefly algorithm to validate its effectiveness. Crucial parameters for optimization, including population size
and number of iterations, are kept same for comparison. For comparison, total harmonic distortion and
convergence behaviour of algorithms against various modulation index values are considered. Moreover,
results have clearly indicated that the proposed algorithm has surpassed particle swarm optimization and
firefly algorithms in terms of convergence behaviour by attaining lower fitness value in lesser number of
iterations. Finally, the experimental validation of selective harmonic elimination in multi-level inverter is
also performed and analyzed.

INDEX TERMS Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter, firefly algorithm, multi-criteria search, selective
harmonic elimination.

I. INTRODUCTION inverters. Among these, the cascaded H-bridge topology of

Ability to provide high voltage without connecting devices multilevel inverters has found substantial applications due to
in series, low stress on semiconductor switches, transformer its simple and modular structure [5].
less structure and improved power quality are few among The advantages of multilevel inverters come along with an
several advantages offered by multilevel inverters [1]. Owing important issue of waveform distortion due to low order har-
these advantages, they are extensively employed for power monics which reduces their performance and efficiency other
conversion in renewable energy [2], HVDC [3] and flex- than decreasing the lifespan of the system in which these
ible AC transmission based systems [4]. Flying capacitor, are employed. To enhance the performance and efficiency
diode clamped and cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters of multilevel inverters, numerous control and modulation
(CHBMLI) constitute the basic three topologies of multilevel techniques have been reported in the literature. These include
high switching frequency based modulation techniques like
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and (sinusoidal pulse width modulation, space vector pulse width
approving it for publication was Snehal Gawande . modulation etc.) and low switching frequency based methods

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see [Link]
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M. Khizer et al.: Selective Harmonic Elimination in a Multilevel Inverter Using Multi-Criteria Search

for example, (selective harmonic elimination pulse width of convergence. Application of generalized pattern search
modulation (SHEPWM) and space vector control). In the (GPS) is discussed for harmonic elimination in [13]. It is
literature, SHEPWM technique is reported to be more sig- reported that for high level inverters where number of vari-
nificant for control of multilevel inverters. This is due to its ables increase, GPS faces difficulty in computing solutions
capability to control unwanted low order harmonics while due to its feeble searching capability. In [14], application
operating switches at fundamental frequency [6]. of particle swarm optimization (PSO) is reported for har-
In SHEPWM, firing angles are computed which are used monic elimination in 5-level CHBMLI. Authors compared
to eliminate particular low order harmonics while keeping the performance of PSO with SPWM and reported that PSO
fundamental harmonic to a pre-determined fixed value. These performed superior than SPWM. In [15], species seed tech-
firing angles are evaluated offline to eliminate k - 1 harmonics nique based PSO is produced. However, authors reported
by solving SHE equations over full modulation index (MI) that this technique offers low rate of convergence because
range having feasible solutions. These firing angles are stored of the computation of Euclidean distance in each iteration.
in memory in the form of lookup table where k denotes Application of memetic algorithm is discussed in [16]. It is
the number of firing angles. Although SHEPWM provides reported that the computational complexity of this algorithm
promising results in eliminating low order harmonics but increases as the number of levels in inverter increase. In [17],
it suffers from highly non-linear and transcendental nature authors discussed the application of water cycle algorithm
SHE equations which require search of efficient methods for (WCA) for elimination of fifth and seventh harmonic in three
solving them. phase seven level inverter and compared its performance with
PSO and FA. In the literature, less commonly used evolu-
A. LITERATURE SURVEY tionary algorithms such as differential search algorithm [18],
Different methods have been used to solve SHE equations whale optimization algorithm (WOA) [19], cuckoo search
and research is still being carried for the development of new algorithm (CSA) [20] and modified grey wolf optimization
methods for solving [Link] methods can be classified (GWO) [21]are also proposed to solve SHE equations for
into three categories: namely numerical methods, algebraic harmonic elimination in multilevel inverters. Researchers
techniques, and evolutionary computation based algorithms. have also developed hybrid based evolutionary algorithms to
In Numerical methods, Newton Raphson (NR) is reported counter the drawbacks of conventional methods. The hybrid
in [7] to solve SHE equations. Although numerical methods asynchronous particle swarm optimization-newton raphson
give promising and accurate solutions but they need an initial (PSO-NR) is discussed in [22]. In [23] authors presented
guess for their optimal performance and have a tendency to the method to improve the speed of convergence in which
get trapped in local optima which can lead to sub-optimal mesh adaptive direct search algorithm hybrid with the PSO
solution. algorithm. In [24] authors have presented a hybrid fish swarm
Algebraic methods, like method of resultant theory, have optimization (FSO) for solving SHE equations in a reduced
also been discussed in the literature to find optimized firing component based multilevel inverters in which PSO is hybrid
angles [8]. Unlike numerical methods, they do no need an with the fish swarm optimizer (FSO). In [25] application of
initial guess. However, these methods cost higher complexity asynchronous particle swarm optimization-genetic algorithm
and computation load with the increase in number of inverter (APSO-GA) is discussed for harmonic elimination in single
levels. Hence, these methods cannot be used for harmonic phase seven and nine-level inverters.
elimination in higher level inverters applications. Among the aforementioned metaheuristic techniques,
Evolutionary computation algorithms have also been used FA finds its popularity in finding good approximate to global
to solve SHE equations due to their advantages of non - solution for highly non-linear and non-convex objective func-
dependency on initial guess and ease of implementation. tions [26]. The simple update criterion coupled with few
One of the earliest evolutionary algorithm, Genetic algo- tuning parameters make it convenient to implement FA for
rithm (GA) is applied to solve SHE equations in three phase the non-convex and multi-modal problems. However, the
nine level inverter [9]. It is reported that it takes more canonical version of FA heavily relies on the exploitation
computational time and does not provide solutions even for behaviour of the fireflies. This can result in algorithm trapped
some modulation indexes on which solution exists. In [10], at local optima and premature convergence of the algorithm
bee algorithm is implemented for harmonic elimination in for certain optimization functions. Therefore, several efforts
seven level inverter. It is reported that BA surpasses GA have been made by the researchers in literature to introduce
in terms of capability to find global solution and fast con- both social and cognitive components for the canonical FA.
vergence rate but it is computationally complex. In [11], In this regard, the authors in [27] have suggested a hybrid
application of differential evolution is proposed for harmonic firefly algorithm coupled with PSO to inherit the explo-
elimination in 15 level CHBMLI. In [12], authors proposed ration properties of PSO. However, the hybridized structure
colonial competitive algorithm (CCA) for harmonic elimi- presents additional complexity to implement the algorithm
nation in CHBMLI having equal and unequal DC sources for large-scale optimization functions that require continu-
and compared its performance with GA and PSO. Authors ous equation update with hyper tuning of more parameters.
reported that CCA outperformed GA and PSO in terms of rate Similarly, the authors in [28] presented a hybrid structure of
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FA with PSO to solve computationally expensive problems.

However, the presented structure again results in additional
complexity with more tuning parameters. To introduce both
exploration and exploitation components to FA with minimal
complexity, the authors in [29] have suggested a multi-criteria
search enhanced FA for finding the economic dispatch of
multi-generation systems. The presented structure is efficient
yet it lacks the balance of both social and cognitive com-
ponents due to the static nature of the tuning parameters of
both phases. To introduce global component to conventional
FA, the authors in [30] and [31] have presented the hybrid
structure of FA and accelerated PSO by introducing the single
loop structure. However, the presented modification lacks the
basic balance between both phases and does not provide the
optimal performance for all objective functions.

B. RESEARCH GAP AND CONTRIBUTIONS

The majority implementations in the literature to introduce
both the social and cognitive components for FA require com-
plex hybridized structures and additional tuning parameters.
The simple update criterion methods, which are used for
introducing global component to FA, lacks the balance of
social/cognitive components. Based on the above discussion,
this research presents a simple updated search mechanism
for FA with both exploitation and exploration properties to
enhance the search capabilities of the canonical version of
FA. Additionally, adaptively tuned parameters for social and
cognitive parts of FA have been suggested to balance out the
contribution of both phases. To summarize, following are the
key contributions of this research:
1) A modified firefly algorithm with adaptive social and
cognitive components is proposed for selective har-
monic elimination problem in cascaded multi-level
inverters by obtaining optimal switching angles.
2) The validation of modified firefly is performed on
nine-level cascaded H-bridge inverters for varying
modulation index values.
3) Experimental performance validation of modified fire-
fly is also proved by implementation of nine-level
cascaded H-bridge inverters results using OPAL-RT
hardware setup.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II
presents the overview of multi-level inverters. Section III
presents the working of FA followed by discussion of the
modified FA with adaptive social and cognitive components.
Section IV presents methodology and results. The last section
summarize the findings and future work.

II. MULTILEVEL INVERTER

A. CASCADED H - BRIDGE MULTILEVEL INVERTER
Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter (CHBMLI) consists of
FIGURE 1. Generalized structure of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter.
two or more H-bridge cells connected in series. For N level
inverter, k number of DC sources or firing angles are required,
N −1 structure of CHBMLI is shown in Figure.1. In the figure,
where k = and they can be equal or unequal. One n H-Bridges are connected in series having separate DC
2
H-bridge cell can produce −Vdc , 0 and +Vdc . The generalized sources connected to them.

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we can write SHE equations for a 9-Level CHBMLI as:

cos(81 ) + cos(82 ) + cos(83 ) + cos(84 ) = 4MI

= ma
(7)
cos(581 ) + cos(582 ) + cos(583 ) + cos(584 ) = 0
(8)
cos(781 ) + cos(782 ) + cos(783 ) + cos(784 ) = 0
(9)
cos(1181 ) + cos(1182 ) + cos(1183 ) + cos(1184 ) = 0
FIGURE 2. Staircase waveform of nine-level inverter.
(10)

B. SELECTIVE HARMONIC ELIMINATION PULSEWIDTH Equation 7 represents the fundamental component in terms of
MODULATION modulation index while Equations 8-10 represent equations
SHE equations of a three phase CHBMLI can be formulated for harmonics to be eliminated. Switching angles are obtained
by analyzing its phase voltage using Fourier series. Assuming using the following objective function [25].
a quarter wave symmetry, the even harmonics gets zero and  4 S 2
Ud − U1 X 1 Uhs
cosine terms also become zero due to the odd nature of f = min 100 + 50 (11)
function. In the remaining of this paper, three-phase line-to- Ud hs U1
s=5
line voltage is referred as line voltage. Triplen harmonics are
where, hs represents the harmonic order, e.g., h2 = 3 and
not considered while formulating SHE equations as they get
h3 = 5. U1 is the value of fundamental voltage, and Ud
cancelled out in line voltage.
is the desired fundamental voltage. To maintain the error
For a N-level three phase CHBMLI comprising of k num-
between Ud and U1 under 1% and to get the desired value
ber of h-bridge cells, we can eliminate k-1 harmonics. SHE
of fundamental voltage, the first part of objective function is
equations, comprising of fundamental and specific low order
fined with the power of 4. Also, to keep the unwanted lower
non-triplen harmonics, can be written as:
order harmonics under 2%, the second part of the fitness
4Vdc function is fine with the power of 2.
V1 = (cos(81 ) + cos(82 ) + cos(83 ) . . . . . . cos(8k ))
π
(1) III. HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION FOR SHE
4Vdc The random nature of the heuristic optimization algorithms
0 = (cos(n81 )
nπ and their gradient-free approach make them convenient to
+cos(n82 ) + cos(n83 ) . . . . . . cos(n8k )) implement for the non-linear, multi-modal, and non-convex
(2) optimization functions. The major parts of the heuristic tech-
niques involve certain deterministic rules to explore/exploit
We can write fundamental component in terms of modulation
the search space of the objective function along with a random
index (MI) as follows:
component to avoid trapping to local minima. A large number
cos(81 ) + cos(82 ) + cos(83 ) . . . . . . cos(8k ) of heuristic algorithms have been presented in literature to
= kMI = ma (3) find the near optimal solution of complex objective func-
tions [32], [33]. Among these different techniques, Firefly
where, Algorithm (FA) is one of the popular methods to locate the
V1 near global solution of different optimization problems. This
MI = 4Vdc
(4) section presents the overview of the conventional FA and
π then presents the multi-update rule with adaptive social and
V1 V1 ma cognitive components to enhance the search capabilities of
MI = = 4kVdc
= (5)
Vmax k the firefly algorithm.
π
where, V1 is the fundamental value of phase voltage obtained
A. FIREFLY ALGORITHM
by H-bridge. Vmax is the maximum value of phase voltage
obtained by CHBMLI and k is no. of H-Bridge cells. Vmax is FA works on the principle of the flashing phenomenon of
obtained when all the switching angles are zero i.e., the fireflies in nature. Each firefly of the population matrix
constitutes a possible solution value for the given objective
4kVdc function. The number of the dimensions of each firefly are in
Vmax = (6)
π accordance with the total decision variables of the objective
The stepped level waveform for a 9-level CHBMLI is function. The movement of the fireflies in the search space
shown in Fig.2. Following the illustration and modeling, of the objective function is governed by the exploitation

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component and the random part is controlled by a set of dif- in (17) only exploits the neighbourhood of the brighter
ferent tuning parameters. The light intensity/brightness of the fireflies. The major drawbacks of the conventional FA is
fireflies correspond towards their fitness values. The fireflies that it lacks the exploration phase, i.e, the movement of
having lower light intensity are shifted iteratively towards the the fireflies towards the global component. This research
brighter fireflies using a defined update equation [34], [35]. proposes a simple update equation with both exploitation
The light intensity of each firefly is defined by simple inverse (cognitive component) and exploration (social) phases. The
square law which relates the intensity Ir with distance R from update equation for the firefly Fa towards the brighter firefly
the source Is as follows: Fb with both social and cognitive components is given as
Is follows:
Ir = (12) 1
R2 Fak+1 = Fak + c1 φo e
−γ R2Fa F
b (Fbk − Fak ) + α(r − )
The intensity of the fireflies is influenced by the medium’s | {z } 2
| {z }
Exploitation Component
absorption coefficient γ and it is modeled as: Random Control
−γ R2Fa F
I = Io e −γ R
(13) + c2 φo e g∗ (Fgk∗ − Fak ) (18)
| {z }
where, Io shows the intensity at R = 0 from the source. Exploration Component
To avoid the singularity for (12) at R = 0, the above two where, c1 and c2 are the tuning parameters to control the
relations can be combined as follows: influence of the exploitation and the exploration search of
2
I = Io e−γ R (14) the firefly Fa respectively.c1 and c2 can be adjusted in the
range of [0,1]. Fg∗ represents the global value for a particular
The attractiveness φ of each firefly directly relates with its iteration k. RFa Fg∗ represents the Euclidean distance of the
intensity, therefore the (14) can be written as follows: firefly Fa computed with respect to Fg∗ . The distance term R
2 for both components is given as follows:
φ = φo e−γ R (15) qP
j∈m (Fa,j − Fb,j ) , Exploitation Component
2
The distance term R in the above equation represents the

R = qP
j∈m (Fa,j − Fg∗ ,j ) , Exploration Component
Euclidean distance between the fireflies. For any two arbi-  2
trary fireflies Fa ∈ IRm and Fb ∈ IRm with m number of
(19)
dimensions, the Euclidean distance [36] is given as follows:
sX The presented modification introduces both social and
RFa Fb = (Fa,j − Fb,j )2 (16) cognitive components and enhances the search capabilities
j∈m of the conventional FA. The main idea is to influence the
where, Fa,j and Fb,j show the jth component of Fa and Fb . movement of the firefly Fa towards the global firefly Fg∗ in
RFa Fb represents the Euclidean distance between Fa and Fb . addition to the Fb [29]. The next part of this section presents
The FA update equation involves the movement model of the adaptive nature of c1 and c2 to control different phases of
firefly Fa towards the brighter firefly Fb in the given search the modified FA.
space. This update equation can be automatically written as:
C. ADAPTIVE NATURE OF CONTROLLING PARAMETERS
−γ R2Fa F 1
Fak+1 = Fak + φo e b(F k − Fak ) + α(r − ) (17) For static c1 and c2 , the performance of the modified FA
| {z b } | {z 2} can be degraded. The next modification in the presented
Exploitation Component
Random Control research is to make these parameters adaptive by introducing
where, α controls the contribution of random component and the time-based variations. The following relations describe
its range is [0,1]. r shows the randomly generated number the adaptiveness of c1 and c2 :
in the range [0,1]. Hence, the movement of the firefly Fa k
is influenced by both exploitation and random parts of the c1p = c1,l + (c1,u − c1,l ) (20)
kmax
update equation. The next part of the section highlights the k
key drawback of the conventional update criterion for FA and c2p = c2,u − (c2,u − c2,l ) (21)
kmax
then presents the modified FA with the simple addition of
both exploration and exploitation phases [37]. where, c1,l and c1,u represent the minimum and maximum
values for exploitation controlling parameter. c2,l and c2,u
represent the minimum and maximum values for exploration
B. MODIFIED FA WITH SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE controlling parameter. c1p and c2p represent the adaptive tun-
COMPONENTS ing parameters. kmax represents the total number of iterations.
The conventional FA compares the light intensity of different Equation 20 shows a linearly increasing function for c1 .
fireflies and shifts the fireflies having lower fitness value At k = kmax , the modified firefly algorithm relies dominantly
towards brighter fireflies. The update equation as defined on the local search component, i.e, c1 = cu . Equation (21)

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Algorithm 1 Pseudocode for Modified Firefly

1 Declare objective function f(8i );
2 Declare constants
3 c1,l , c1,u , c2,l , c2,u , β0 , α, γ , kmax , N;
4 Randomly initialize Fireflies F;
5 Evaluate Objective function value f(8i ), ∀ 8i ∈ F;
6 Rank the fireflies and find the initial global best
firefly 8∗g ;
7 while k < kmax do
k
8 c1 ← c1,l + kmax (c1,u − c1,l );
k
9 c2 ← c2,l + kmax (c2,u − c12,l );
10 for i ← 1 to N do FIGURE 3. Optimized switching angles under various modulation indices.
11 for j ← 1 to N do
12 Find Exploitation distance Rij using
distance relation;
13 Find Exploration distance Rig∗ using
distance relation;
14 if Ij > Ii then
2
15 8i ← 8i + c1 β0 exp−γ Rij (8j − 8i ) +
−γ R2ig∗
c2 β0 exp (8∗g − 8i ) +
α(rand() − 0.5);
16 if Ii > Ij then
−γ R2
17 8i ← 8i + c2 β0 exp ig∗ (8∗ −
g
8i ) + α(rand() − 0.5);

18 Evaluate Objective function value f(8i ) at updated

8i , ∀ 8i ∈ F;
19 Rank the fireflies and determine the global best
8∗g at updated 8i ;
20 k ← k + 1;

TABLE 1. Modified Firefly based SHEPWM parameters for 9-level

CHBMLI.

FIGURE 4. Harmonics and THD under various modulation indexes.

reaching towards convergence [38]. The overall update equa-

tion with adaptive c1 and c2 is given as follows:
−γ R2Fa F 1
Fak+1 = Fak + c1p φo e b(Fbk − Fak ) + α(r − )
| {z } | {z 2}
Adaptive Exploitation Component Random Control
shows a linearly decreasing function for exploration control-
−γ R2Fa F
ling parameter. At k = kmax , the modified firefly algorithm + c2p φo e g∗ (Fgk∗ − Fak ) (22)
minimizes the global search, i.e, c2 = cl . The presented | {z }
Adaptive Exploration Component
adaptive parameters ensure that the algorithm explores the
neighbourhood of the firefly having lower intensity to avoid The adaptive nature of c1 and c2 along with both the
the local trapping at the start of the search process. Similarly, exploration and exploitation components enhance the search
the adaptive c1 ensures that the algorithm exploits locally to capabilities of the conventional FA. The MFA pseudocode for
avoid possible oscillation around the optimal solution when solving SHE optimization problem is given in Algorithm 1.

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FIGURE 5. Line Voltages and FFT Analysis Graphs obtained at various modulation indexes.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION where, φ1 , φ2 , φ3 and φ4 represent the optimized switching
The proposed MFA algorithm is implemented in MATLAB to angles. To carry out simulation, nine level CHBMLI having
obtain the optimized switching angles for SHE of CHBMLI. DC source of 75V connected to each H-bridge cell is simu-
The crucial parameters required for optimization are given in lated in Simulink. Maximum voltage that can be generated
Table.1. CHBMI is connected to the resistor of value 10  for by MLI is 300V. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) tool is used to
simulation and experimental analysis. perform harmonic analysis to analyze the effects of obtained
switching angles on the THD. The effect of obtained switch-
ing angles on the eliminated harmonics and THD is shown in
A. SIMULATION RESULTS Fig. 4.
The switching angles are obtained for nine level inverter By looking at Fig. 4 (a), it can be observed that for modu-
having equal DC source over modulation index range lation index range 0.1 to 0.2, targeted harmonics could not be
0 ≤ MI ≤ 1 with the increment size of 0.01. The optimized eliminated and for modulation index range 0.4 to 0.9, ampli-
switching angles obtained are shown in Fig. 3. tude of targeted harmonics is negligible i.e., they have been

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FIGURE 6. Convergence graphs at different modulation indexes.

TABLE 2. THD Comparison between different algorithms.

FIGURE 8. Experimental results of line voltages at (a) MI=0.63,

(b) MI=0.69, and (c) MI=0.81.

FIGURE 7. Experimental Setup: (a) RT Lab sofware (b) Op5700 OPAL-RT

SHEPWM. The comparative analysis is conducted consider-
(c) Fluke 435 power quality analyzer (d) Lacroy MDA 810 oscilloscope. ing two major targets: the calculated THD and the conver-
gence behaviour of the algorithms. The proposed algorithm
is compared with two other algorithms which are named as
completely eliminated. The simulated output line voltages firefly (FA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). To justify
and harmonic spectrums of the line voltages of the 9-level the comparison, the same parameters such as number of
CHBMLI are shown in Fig. 5 under 3 different modulation iterations, population size are considered for all the algo-
indexes. It can be observed that in all the three instances, the rithms. We can see from Table. 2, for some modulation
SHEPWM eliminated the 5th , 7th and 11th order harmonics index values all the algorithms have produced same values
effectively as shown in in Fig. 5. of THD. At modulation index values of 0.3, 0.6 and 0.7,
The advantageous and predominant characteristics of the the THD attained by the proposed algorithm is less than
proposed optimization algorithms are validated by comparing than the PSO and FA. This proves the prominence of the
it with other algorithms that have already been applied in proposed algorithm. The convergence graphs corresponding

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FIGURE 9. Line THD at MI=0.63. FIGURE 11. Line THD at MI=0.81.

clearly show that the targeted harmonics have been elim-

inated and consequently THD has also been noticeably
reduced. At MI = 0.63, line THD reaches at 7.3% and it
further reduces to 5.2% at MI = 0.69. While, Line THD has
been able to attain the minimal value of 4.7% at MI = 0.8.

V. CONCLUSION
The modified firefly based on multi-criteria search is pro-
posed to solve SHE equations to eliminate harmonics in
a cascaded H-bridge multi-level inverter. The effectiveness
of the proposed algorithm is tested using both simulation
and real-time OPAL - RT based experimental prototype of
three-phase nine-level cascaded H-bridge inverter. The devel-
oped algorithm showed promising results than particle swarm
optimization and conventional firefly algorithms in terms of
FIGURE 10. Line THD at MI=0.69. both speed of convergence and reduced THD for different
modulation indexes. Finally, the experimental results for a
9-level cascaded H-bridge inverter validated the accuracy of
to various modulation indexes are shown in Fig. 6. It can the multi-criteria search-based modified firefly algorithm.
be observed from the convergence graphs that the proposed In future, application of proposed algorithm can be applied
algorithm has attained lower fitness value than PSO and FA for solving selective harmonic eleminiations in higher level
against large range of modulation index which shows its inverters having more number of switching angles.
higher accuracy. Moreover, it has converged to the optimal
solution with reduced iterations than PSO and FA. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Sheroze Liaquat thanks the Higher Education Commission,
B. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Pakistan, for providing him an academic scholarship to
pursue the Ph.D. degree at the Department of Electrical
The results obtained through simulation are further verified
Engineering and Computer Science South Dakota State Uni-
by conducting an experimental analysis. The experimental
versity, Brookings, USA, under the US-Pakistan Knowledge
setup consists of real time hardware setup of Op5700 OPAL-
Corridor program.
RT system, Fluke 435 power quality analyzer and Lecroy
MDA 810 oscilloscope. The experimental setup is presented
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cuckoo optimization algorithm for selective harmonic elimination strategy MUHAMMAD KHIZER received the [Link].
in the cascaded multilevel inverter,’’ ECTI Trans. Electr. Eng., Electron., and [Link]. degrees in electrical engineering
Commun., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 7–15, 2014. with the specialization in power systems from
[21] A. Routray, R. K. Singh, and R. Mahanty, ‘‘Harmonic reduction in hybrid the University of Engineering and Technology,
cascaded multilevel inverter using modified grey wolf optimization,’’ IEEE Lahore. His current research interests include
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 M. Khizer et al.: Selective Harmonic Elimination in a Multilevel Inverter Using Multi-Criteria Search

SHEROZE LIAQUAT (Graduate Student AHMED AL-DURRA (Senior Member, IEEE)

Member, IEEE) received the [Link]. and [Link]. received the Ph.D. degree in ECE from The
degrees in electrical engineering with specializa- Ohio State University, in 2010. He is currently
tion in power systems from the University of a Professor with the EECS Department, Khal-
Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, ifa University, United Arab Emirates. He has
in 2018 and 2020, respectively. He is currently supervised/co-supervised over 30 Ph.D./master’s
pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Electrical Engi- students. He is also leading the Energy Systems
neering and Computer Science Department, South Control and Optimization Laboratory, Advanced
Dakota State University, USA. He served as the Power and Energy Center. He has one U.S. patent,
Faculty Member with the Electrical Engineering one edited book, 12 book chapters, and over
Department, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, 230 scientific papers in top-tier journals and refereed international con-
Lahore, from 2018 to 2021. His current research interests include the applica- ference proceedings. His research interests include applications of control
tion of meta-heuristic techniques, soft computing methods, machine learning and estimation theory on power systems stability, micro and smart grids,
algorithms in the economic dispatch problem, and electricity markets. renewable energy systems and integration, and process control. He is an
Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY and IEEE POWER
ENGINEERING LETTERS; and an Associate Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, IET Renewable Power Generation, and Frontiers in
Energy Research.
MUHAMMAD FAHAD ZIA (Member, IEEE)
received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from the University of Brest, Brest, France,
in 2020. His main research interests and expe-
rience include ac/dc microgrids, energy manage-
ment systems, transactive energy, power system
operation, and power electronics. He is serving
as a Reviewer for many prestigious journals from
IEEE, IET, Elsevier, MPDI, and other publish-
ers, including IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID,
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS: SYSTEMS, IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, Applied Energy, Electric Power Sys-
tems Research, IET Renewable Power Generation, IET Generation, Trans-
mission and Distribution, Energies, and Electronics among others. He is also
a Topic Editor for MDPI Electronics.

S. M. MUYEEN (Senior Member, IEEE) received

the [Link]. degree from the Rajshahi Uni-
versity of Engineering and Technology (RUET),
SAIKRISHNA KANUKOLLU received the Bangladesh (formerly known as Rajshahi Insti-
[Link]. degree in electrical and electronics engi- tute of Technology), in 2000, and the [Link].
neering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological and Ph.D. degrees from the Kitami Institute of
University, Hyderabad, India, in 2008, and the Technology, Japan, in 2005 and 2008, respec-
[Link]. degree in power electronics and power tively, all in electrical and electronic engineering.
systems from the Indian Institute of Technol- He is currently a Full Professor at the Electrical
ogy Bombay, Mumbai, India, in 2010. In 2010, Engineering Department, Qatar University. He has
he joined ABB, India, as an Application Engineer, published more than 350 articles in different journals and international
where he was involved in the development of conferences. He has published seven books as the author or an editor.
a SCADA network management tool for power His research interests include power system stability and control, electrical
systems. He joined The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE (currently machine, FACTS, energy storage systems (ESS), renewable energy, and
Khalifa University), in 2011, as a Research Engineer. At Khalifa University, HVDC systems. He has been a keynote speaker and an invited speaker at
he has been serving in several research capacities, including executing many international conferences, workshops, and universities. He is serving as
various research projects related to power electronics applications in oil an Editor/an Associate Editor for many prestigious journals from IEEE, IET,
and gas industry, power systems, and constructing experimental setups and other publishers, including IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION,
(power electronics, motor drives, renewable energy systems, and grounding IEEE POWER ENGINEERING LETTERS, IET Renewable Power Generation, and
systems). His research interests include microgrid systems, renewable energy IET Generation, Transmission and Distribution. He is a Chartered Profes-
systems, operation and control of high-density power electronic converters, sional Engineers, Australia, and a fellow of Engineers Australia.
and electric motor drives.

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