Magnetic Energy Harvesting on Overhead High Voltage Lines: Weight Optimized Transformer Design for High Power Output

Magnetic energy harvesting is a technique to obtain electric energy from the AC-current forms the primary winding. It is a suitable energy harvesting technique for measurement systems on overhead high voltage lines (OHL). For OHL applications with a high power demand also other aspects have to be considered, e.g. the weight of the system. Furthermore, the high dynamic range of the primary current is an important parameter. In this work the behavior of the transformer of a magnetic energy harvesting systems is studied. A model for the transformer is presented, which is suitable for the high current range in OHL applications. Comparative measurement studies are presented to validate the theoretical predictions with respect to the achievable power density.