A particle swarm optimization-based flowchart to select wind speed distribution function

Wind energy has been the focus of attention by governments over the past several decades because it is clean and renewable energy source that offers many advantages compared to others. This paper reports a particle swarm optimization based flowchart used to identify the most appropriate wind speed distribution function. In this procedure, the PSO algorithm modifies and estimates the parameters of the distribution functions examined. The distributions of Nakagami, Normal and Weibull are judged for right-skewed, non-skewed and left-skewed distributions, respectively. The outcomes showed that each function offers impressive performance compared to the others in its defined conditions. Despite the changes of one-component distribution’s parameters made by the PSO algorithm are not significant, the same changes will affect the function’s performance greatly. Because of the sufficient flexibility offered by the nominated functions, the proposed flowchart is applicable for all wind regimes.