The Usefulness of the Energy Harvested from Additive Noises in Power Line and Wireless Media

Abstract

Aiming to come up with strategies for harvesting energy in hybrid power line communication (PLC)-wireless systems, this work focuses on the amount of energy that can be potentially harvested from the additive noise in electric power grids and in the air within residential facilities when the frequencies from 1.7 up to 100 MHz are taken into account. Based on statistical analyses of a residential data set, we show that the average power of the measured additive noise in the power line is higher in the morning than other periods of the day. Also, it is higher than the values from the energy harvested from in the air, in the same frequency band. Moreover, we show that the amount of energy harvested from these additive noises can yield achievable data rates between hundreds of kbps up to dozens of Mbps if hybrid PLC-wireless channels are used for data communication purposes.

A Notch Filter-Based Coupling Circuit for UNB and NB PLC Systems

“…This section discusses the numerical results we obtained using ADS software for simulating the proposed NB-PLC notch coupling circuit, which we designed to operate in frequency bands between 1 Hz and f c = 2 MHz at a notch frequency of 60 Hz. The choice of f c = 2 MHz as the upper-frequency edge shows that the proposed NB-PLC notch coupling circuit is adequate for UNB and NB PLC systems and energy harvesting in frequencies up to f c = 2 MHz, as investigated in [12].…”

“…Note that electromagnetic interference results from the use of electromagnetically unshielded power cables. Additionally, the connection of PLC devices to power lines becomes a complex task when the amplitude of the mains signal is high, which is observed in medium voltage (MV) and high voltage (HV) electric power systems, or the transmission of PLC signals is close to the main's frequency [12,13]. Consequently, PLC coupling devices require study [14].…”

Energy Harvesting in Electric Power Systems for Data Communication Purposes

“…In short, the EEH is widely studied in the High-Voltage (HV) [14]- [17] and Medium-Voltage (MV) [17]- [20] power lines while the MEH is mostly investigated in the HV [24]- [27] and Low-Voltage (LV) ones [29]- [31]. Different from EEH and MEH, WEH is focused on LV power lines [2], [36], [37].…”

“…Due to the necessity to attenuate the AC mains signal, WEH is mostly exploited in LV power lines [2], [36], [37]. In other words, the connection between the EH device and either one of HV or MV power lines demands a more complex and expensive coupling circuit than the one for LV power line.…”

“…Due to the wide frequency bandwidth of this spectrum range, it can be expected that a numerous variety of narrowband disturbances and impulsive noise components are present in it and, thus, the energy obtained from this frequency band is expected to be great [33]- [35]. BB-PLC systems could be designed to perform WEH from AM signals (0.5−1.7 MHz in America), FM signals (88−108 MHz) [36], and TV signals . If the dedicated EH approach is considered, the BB-PLC signal that traveled through the power line channel is received by an EH device, and therefore, it can be seen as a source of energy as well.…”