A short-term photovoltaic power forecasting method is proposed, integrating variational mode decomposition (VMD), an improved dung beetle algorithm (IDBO), and a deep hybrid kernel extreme learning machine (DHKELM). First, the weather factors less relevant to photovoltaic (PV) power generation are filtered using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Historical data are then clustered into three categories—sunny, cloudy, and rainy days—using the K-means algorithm. Next, the original PV power data are decomposed through VMD. A DHKELM-based combined prediction model is developed for each component of the decomposition, tailored to different weather types. The model’s hyperparameters are optimized using the IDBO. The final power forecast is determined by combining the outcomes of each individual component. Validation is performed using actual data from a PV power plant in Australia and a PV power station in Kashgar, China demonstrates. Numerical evaluation results show that the proposed method improves the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) by 3.84% and the Root-Mean-Squared Error (RMSE) by 3.38%, confirming its accuracy.