A High-Ratio Renewable-Energy Power System Time–Frequency Domain-Cooperative Harmonic Detection Method Based on Enhanced Variational Modal Decomposition and the Prony Algorithm

Accurate identification of harmonic components is a prerequisite for addressing resonance risks in new energy power stations. Traditional Variational Modal decomposition (VMD) is susceptible to the influence of the modal decomposition order K and the penalty factor α when decomposing harmonic signals. This paper proposes an adaptive parameter selection method for VMD based on an improved Triangular Topology Aggregation Optimization (TTAO) algorithm. Firstly, the pre-set parameters of variational modal decomposition—modal order K and penalty factor α—exhibit strong coupling. Conventional optimization algorithms cannot effectively coordinate adjustments to both parameters. This paper employs an enhanced TTAO algorithm, whose triangular topology unit structure and dual aggregation mechanism enable simultaneous adjustment of modal order K and penalty factor α, effectively resolving their coupled optimization challenge. Using minimum envelope entropy as the fitness function, the algorithm obtains an optimized parameter combination for VMD to decompose the signal. Subsequently, dominant modal components are selected based on Pearson’s correlation coefficients for reconstruction, with harmonic parameters precisely identified using the Prony algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that under a 20 dB noise environment, the proposed method achieves a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 25.6952 for steady-state harmonics, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.4889. The mean errors for frequency and amplitude identification are 0.055% and 3.085%, respectively, significantly outperforming methods such as PSO-VMD and EMD. Moreover, the runtime of our model is markedly shorter than that of the PSO-VMD algorithm, effectively resolving the symmetric trade-off between recognition accuracy and runtime inherent in variational modal decomposition.