For a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) integrated into a micro gas turbine (MGT) hybrid power system, SOFC operating temperature and turbine inlet temperature are the key parameters, which affect the performance of the hybrid system. Thus, a least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) identification model based on an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed to describe the nonlinear temperature dynamic properties of the SOFC/MGT hybrid system in this paper. During the process of modeling, an improved PSO algorithm is employed to optimize the parameters of the LS-SVM. In order to obtain the training and prediction data to identify the modified LS-SVM model, a SOFC/MGT physical model is established via Simulink toolbox of MATLAB6.5. Compared to the conventional BP neural network and the standard LS-SVM, the simulation results show that the modified LS-SVM model can efficiently reflect the temperature response of the SOFC/MGT hybrid system. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.