The output of photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems remains uncertain primarily due to the uncontrollable nature of weather conditions, which may introduce disturbances to the power grid upon integrating PV systems. Accurate short-term PV power forecasting is an essential approach for ensuring the stability of the power system. The paper proposes a short-term PV power forecasting model based on improved zebra optimization algorithm (IZOA)-stochastic configuration network (SCN). First, the historical PV data are divided into three weather patterns, effectively reducing the uncertainty of PV power. Second, a prediction model based on SCN is developed. To enhance the forecasting model’s accuracy even further, the IZOA is introduced to optimize the key parameters of the SCN. Finally, IZOA-SCN is employed for short-term PV power through various weather patterns. Experiment results show that the proposed method significantly improves the prediction accuracy in contrast to other comparison models.