METHOD FOR REMOTELY MONITORING FAILED SURGE ARRESTER DISCONNECTORS AND ENERGY HARVESTER FOR AUTONOMOUS POWER SUPPLY OF MONITORING DEVICES INSTALLED ON SURGE ARRESTERS

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of remotely monitoring a status of a surge arrester disconnector via a long-range wireless mesh communication system of surge arrester disconnectors organized in clusters, each cluster including disconnectors that are physically located within a same cluster area, at least one of the disconnectors in each cluster being coupled to communication means of a predetermined communication range for transmitting a signal indicative of the disconnector status, the method comprising: transmitting, from a first cluster, a status signal indicative of a status of a first disconnector in the first cluster to a second cluster located within the predetermined communication range from the first cluster; consecutively transmitting the status signal from the cluster that receives said signal to an adjacent cluster within the predetermined communication range, until reaching an end cluster on the long-range mesh communication system; transmitting, from the end cluster, the status signal to a monitoring station and monitoring the status of the first disconnector, at the monitoring station, based on a result of transmission of the status signal. The present invention also provides an energy harvester apparatus for harvesting energy from a leakage current of a surge arrester, comprising: first and second input terminals adapted to be coupled in series with the surge arrester and ground potential to collect the leakage current that flows from the surge arrester; and an energy storage circuit comprising a storage capacitor adapted to store charge from the collected leakage current and to supply the stored charge, via first and second output terminals coupled to the storage capacitor, to an electronic device. Also provided is a method of detecting a failed surge arrester from a monitoring station remote to the surge arrester.