Powering low-cost utility sensors using energy harvesting

This paper presents the use of magnetic-field and solar energy harvesting to power low-cost utility sensors. As we move towards a more dynamic and intelligent electricity grid, inexpensive smart sensors that help in extracting information on current, temperature and voltage from different utility assets are becoming vital for maintaining high reliability of the power grid. Maintenance free sensors that do not require batteries for operation can be developed with the use of efficient energy harvesting techniques. This paper presents a novel 0.2 V to 3.3 V AC-DC boost converter which converts magnetic field (H-field) and solar energy to electrical energy used by the sensor electronics. A supercapacitor has been used to operate the sensor even in an outage. Numerous design constraints have been identified. Further, a low-cost power circuit has been fabricated and experimentally tested to show functionality under varying operating conditions. Finally, analysis under faulted conditions has also been presented to show the robustness of the power circuit.