Summary Over the past few decades, the world demand for energy has risen steadily, forcing the world communities to look for alternative sources. Photovoltaic (PV) is seen as the most promising solution for this demand. However, the PV system is popularly known to suffer from low‐energy harvesting due to the change of environment conditions. An inexpensive and practical solution to extract the energy from the PV is by improving the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller technique. An ideal MPPT should be able to track the true maximum power operating point accurately under all circumstances and overcome all nonlinearities in the characteristic I‐V curves. This paper presents an updated review of the techniques based on the perturbative MPPT methods, both using the conventional and soft computing methods. The working principles of the techniques, parameter effects, and their limitations are discussed. The focus of this review is to direct the readers to the new direction of MPPT using the artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation techniques. Besides serving as a comprehensive source of information, the paper also provides a critical review on the relative performance of the selected MPPT methods. This includes the module dependency, tracking performance, and the ability to handle the partial shading conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The presence of electric vehicles (EVs) directly affects the low voltage electric distribution networks. This article depicts the anticipated problems that occurred when it draws power from grid to vehicle in the charging scenario and critically analyze EV as dynamic storage while feeding the power grid in the discharging status (vehicle to grid). The merits and demerits by deploying the mass integration of EVs into the distribution network are comprehensively investigated. Moreover, the challenges of integrating renewable energy resources and deployment of EVs, for the efficient, reliable, and uninterruptible power flow are covered. The future scopes of electric mobility industry including wireless EV charging, vehicle to home, cloud to home charging are also highlighted. This comprehensive review is highly beneficial for the research community and design engineers working in this area. K E Y W O R D Selectric vehicles, grid to vehicle, power charger, power stability, renewable energy resources, smart grid, vehicle to grid

Increasing the unplanned penetration of Distributed Generators (DGs) has spurred active and reactive power losses in the distribution system. This article suggests using a novel Strawberry Plant Propagation Algorithm (SPPA) for planning the placement of the DGs with the aim of reducing the network (active) power losses and improving the overall voltage profile. The proposed method (SPPA) has been tested on 33 and 69 node radial systems in MATLAB. A cost analysis was also performed and compared with other contemporary methods. The results for the considered variables show the significance of the proposed method in comparison to various other counterparts, including the Mine Blast Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization.

The traditional electric power system is examining a transformation process to an intelligent, efficient, and costeffective smart grid (SG) system. The SG has different subsystems for its accurate functionality. Among these subsystems, the communication subsystem plays a vital role for real-time data sharing between devices and systems connected in SG domain. In this paper, a survey of smart communication subsystem is provided and several communication technologies that have strong potential for implementation in future SG applications by electric utility companies are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of each communication technology in the SG domain are also presented. Finally, a hybrid communication model is suggested for reliable communication between smart meters and control system in the SG.