This paper presents a new hybrid method based on biogeography-based optimization (BBO) and recursive least square (RLS) algorithms, called BBO–RLS, to solve harmonic estimation problem in case of time varying power signal in presence of different noises. BBO algorithm searches for the global optimum mainly through two steps: migration and mutation. The basic BBO algorithm is combined with RLS in an adaptive way to sequentially update the unknown parameters (weights) of the harmonic signal. Practical validation is also made with the experimentation of the algorithm with real time data obtained from a solar connected inverter system panel with power quality analyzer and estimation is performed under simulation. Comparison of the results achieved with the proposed algorithm demonstrates its superiority over other recently reported five algorithms like GA, PSO, BFO, F-BFO with Least Square (LS), and BFO–RLS in terms of accuracy, convergence and computational time.