Design Oriented Analysis of Overhead Line Magnetic Energy Harvesters with Passive and Active Rectifiers

The restructuring of the power grid calls for various energy harvesting technologies to power prospective remote electronic sensors, data loggers, and communication devices that could be installed at locations with restricted access. Magnetic energy harvesting stands out as a promising technology that is well suited for such applications while also being able to provide a significant amount of power. In this paper, a clamped-type overhead line magnetic energy harvester in configuration with passive and active rectifiers loaded with a constant voltage load is investigated. Here, an approximate piecewise linear model of the magnetic core is applied to represent the operation of the joint harvester–rectifier system. The main findings of this study include design-oriented analysis that easily lends itself to engineering applications. Based on the proposed analytical results, design guidelines are suggested to establish the key parameters of the harvester’s magnetic structure such as core size and number of secondary turns. Design examples are presented and verified using both simulation and experimental results. A good agreement of the results was found. The offered approach is simple and suitable for engineering purposes.