Design of a Self-Powered Global Positioning System (GPS)-Synchronized Micro-Continuous Point-on-Wave (CPoW) Module

The broad deployment of time-synchronized continuous point-on-wave (CPoW) modules will enable electric power utilities to gain unprecedented insight into the behavior of their power system assets, loads, and distributed renewable generation in real time. By increasing the available level of detail visible to operators, serious fault events such as wildfire-inducing arc flashes, safety-jeopardizing transformer failures, and equipment-damaging power quality decline can be mitigated in a data-driven, systematic manner. In this research project, a time-synchronized micro-scale CPoW module was designed, constructed, and characterized. This inductively powered CPoW module, which operates wirelessly by using the current flowing through a typical distribution conductor as its power source and a wireless data link for communication, has been configured to measure instantaneous line current at high frequency (nominally 3,000 samples per second) with 12-bit resolution. The design process for this module is detailed in this study, including background research, individual block design and testing, printed circuit board (PCB) design, and final characterization of the system. To validate the performance of this module, tests of power requirements, measurement accuracy, battery life, susceptibility to electromagnetic interference, and fault detection performance were performed. The results indicate that the design under investigation will satisfy the technical and physical constraints required for bulk deployment in an actual distribution network after manufacturing optimizations. After the test results were summarized, the future research and development activities needed to finalize this design for commercial deployment were identified and discussed.