Energy Harvesting in Substations for Powering Autonomous Sensors

The benefits of enhanced condition monitoring in the asset management of the electricity transmission infrastructure are increasingly being exploited by the grid operators. Adding more sensors helps to track the plant health more accurately. However, the installation or operating costs of any additional sensors could outweigh the benefits they bring due to the requirement for new cabling or battery maintenance. Energy harvesting devices are therefore being proposed to power a new generation of wireless sensors. The harvesting devices could enable the sensors to be maintenance free over their lifetime and substantially reduce the cost of installing and operating a condition monitoring system.