Improved Coplanar Couplers Based WPT Systems for Adaptive Energy Harvesting on Power Towers

Wireless power transfer (WPT) technology is promising for energy harvesting and electronics powering on power towers. This article presents an improved coplanar couplers based WPT system for adaptive energy harvesting on the towers. Magnetic flux analyses of conventional coaxial coils indicate that the significance of the adaptive and extensible performance in this application. Improved coplanar couplers are further proposed to reduce magnetic flux interactions between the WPT and high-voltage components and promote the performances, which include discrete transmitter windings, vertical receiver coil, and high-permeability layers. Related parameters are determined based on a concluded flow from a sequence of simulations. Moreover, performances of the WPT and high-voltage systems under operating conditions are simulated. The design does not break the high-voltage characteristic and shows robust performances from comparisons. Experimental results prove the effectiveness of the design with a 22.53% efficiency and an 18.98 W output power. Such an adaptive insulator-independent energy supply solution can be extended to different high-voltage towers.