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An Experimental Strategy for Characterizing Inductive Elesctromagnetic Energy Harvesters

Pedro Martín Sánchez¹, Fco Javier Rodríguez Sánchez¹, Enrique Santiso Gómez¹

¹Department of Electronics, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 28805 Madrid, Spain.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)

|January 26, 2020

Summary

This study presents a simulation strategy for designing self-powered condition monitoring systems for high voltage power lines. The method optimizes inductive energy harvesters, achieving up to 165 mW power output.

Area of Science:

Electrical Engineering
Power Systems
Sensor Technology

Background:

Condition monitoring of high voltage power lines is crucial for grid reliability and fault mitigation.
Self-powered sensor systems eliminate the need for external wiring or batteries.
Energy harvesting from the power line's magnetic field offers a viable power source for these sensors.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce an innovative simulation-based strategy for characterizing inductive electromagnetic energy harvesters.
To design and optimize power conditioning systems for self-powered monitoring applications.
To meet specific performance requirements, including harvested power, output voltage, and magnetic core saturation.

Main Methods:

Development of simulation models to characterize inductive electromagnetic energy harvesters and power conditioning units.
Imposition of performance requirements such as harvested power, output voltage range, and magnetic core saturation levels.
Validation of the simulation approach through an experimental setup with a Si-steel magnetic core energy harvester.

Main Results:

The simulation strategy successfully generated various harvester configurations meeting specified performance criteria.
Experimental verification confirmed the accuracy and efficiency of the simulation-based design approach.
Maximum harvested power reached 165 mW with a power density of 2.79 mW/cm³ under a worst-case scenario (5 A primary current).

Conclusions:

The proposed simulation-based strategy provides an effective method for designing optimal inductive energy harvesters for power line monitoring.
This approach enables the development of technically and economically viable self-powered sensor systems for enhanced grid reliability.
The validated methodology supports the advancement of condition monitoring technologies in high voltage power transmission and distribution.

Keywords:

condition monitoring energy harvesting inductive harvesting

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