Dr. Igor Paprotny
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
BSAC Postdoctoral Researcher
October 5, 2010 | 12:30 to 01:30 | 540 Cory Hall, DOP Center Conference Room
Host: Richard White
Modernization of the US power grid will necessitate the deployment of a large number of sensors for ubiquitous monitoring of the "smarter" grid. Mandated introduction of inherently variable renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, as well as ongoing efforts in energy conservation, will require highly granular monitoring of the flow of power, as well as collecting diagnostic information to ensure seamless delivery of electricity to the end user. Proactive fault mitigation and automated fault classification will reduce the frequency and hasten the resolution of unplanned power outages. For example, it is estimated that 900,000 new sensors alone may be installed by PG&E in Northern California. The required extended sensor lifetime (20+ years) presents the need for on-board energy generation to ensure uninterrupted sensor operation. Despite the fact that kilowatts of power are often flowing through a nearby conductors, designing a reliable, cost effective, and non-intrusive methods of tapping into that power presents a challenge. In this talk, I present our work on electromechanical AC energy harvesters from energized conductors. Our harvesters use permanent magnets to interact with the alternating magnetic field emanating from current-carrying conductors. The force on the magnet, and the resulting motion, is transformed via piezoelectric coupling to electric energy. In this talk, I will present two types of AC energy harvesters that we are currently studying; a mesoscale design, which is build around a PZT bimorph, and a MEMS design, which uses an AlN unimorph and fits within a 1 cm x 1 cm x 1/2 cm volume. I will also briefly present our ongoing work on integrating the harvester into the self-powered wireless sensor modules that can be e.g., mounted on overhead power lines. Using an early prototype of our AC energy harvester we have been able to harvest 11mW from a nearby conductor carrying a 50-amp current.
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