An electric-field high energy harvester from medium or high voltage power line with parallel line

Abstract In order to effectively monitor transmission lines and transmission towers, a number of different types of sensors are needed. A lot of times, these sensors along with the transmission lines and transmission towers are in inaccessible or hard-to-access areas and replacing their batteries is difficult. Yet they need consistent power supply. By harvesting energy directly from these medium and high voltage power lines, these devices can become self-sustaining while the overall system is more friendly to the environment. This paper presents a novel approach to high energy harvesting based on capacitive coupling between the power line and the harvesting line. This technique has several advantages, namely high output voltage, easy adjustment of coupling coefficient, and low cost. The validation and implantation of this harvesting system are proposed with the support of experimental results. This energy-harvesting ability of W and mA levels is achieved for the power line monitoring devices, with higher power output depending on the length and the size of the harvesting line.