Toward Smarter Grids: Experimental Investigation of an “All-Optical” Electrical Sensor Under Laboratory Conditions

Abstract

Smart grids yield in an efficient energy distribution, driven by advanced grid management and diverse technologies' integration. For instance, the remote monitoring of transmission lines, facilitates the development process of conventional electrical networks into smart grids. One form of such remote monitoring applications can be actuated by means of a drone, which carries an embedded intelligent sensor. These drone-based applications referred to as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), thus allow an instantaneous surveillance of the actual status of transmission lines, remotely. Accordingly, this paper presents an experimental setup of an "all-optical" electrical sensor, confronted with different forced voltage/current (V/I) levels, in order to test its feasibility for future applications in drone-controlled, electric grid monitoring processes. After analyzing different measurements' outputs, and comparing them with reference values outputted by reference V/I sensors, the resulting deviated errors are tabulated and justified. Furthermore, the exploration of the studied sensor's pros and cons, and by taking into consideration the space/weight restrictions that a drone-based application obtrudes, related future work is suggested.

Modeling Magnetic Fields around Stranded Electrical Transmission Lines via Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

“…Ampere's law relates the magnetic field around a closed loop to the current passing through the surface, bounded by that loop, as can be deduced from its mathematical formulation (vector notation) in (1).…”

“…Contactless magnetic sensors, for instance, leverage MFs to measure electrical currents, while requiring no direct physical contact with the electrical conductor. By reducing wear and tear effects from the electrical conductors, such sensors can be implemented in ample processes, in a wide range of fields, ranging from industrial automation and automotive industry to smart grid applications [1]. Therefore, magnetic data acquisition using magnetic-based sensors makes the latent invaluable in applications where the traditional sensors (i.e., invasive electrical sensors) are not practical, such as drone and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based applications for Transmission Line (TL) monitoring applications.…”