Technology

Once installed at the top of a power line pylon, the system generates power from the magnetic induction between the line conductors and a linear Low frequency/magnetic Field intensity Antenna (LFA) positioned at safety distance (1÷5 m) from them.The resulting system is a very loose coupled transformer, where the primary circuit is represented by the power line, and the secondary circuit is represented by the LFA magnetic antenna.
Cascaded to the antenna is a sophisticated electronic module generating DC power output. The patented operational principle of this device is keeping under control the level of saturation of the LFA magnetic core, therefore continuously guaranteeing the optimal harvesting efficiency for different service electronics load consumption. After being transformed in a more usable DC format, the energy generated by the antenna + power supply system it is used both to power the service electronics and to charge a li-ion accumulator.

Principles of Electromagnetic Fields

The cables (whose direction is indicated as Direction of propagation) that carry electricity generating an electromagnetic field whose electric and magnetic components are out of phase by 90° as in the figure below where are shown the magnetic and electrical fields amplitudes.

The amplitude over time of the electrical component is proportional to the electrical voltage (Volt) while the amplitude of the magnetic component is proportional to the intensity of the electric current (Ampere) in the cable.

The ARGO technology sees only the magnetic component (blue wave in the figure) so the amount of energy extracted depends only by the intensity of the current present in the cable, the wavelenght is fixed based on reverse of industrial frequency that is 50 Hz.

The electrical component instead constitutes a potenzial danger for the plant but is removed maintaining the LFA remote from the cable (1-5 meters dependig of voltage) futhermore the LFA is kept at a 1m distance from the pylon structure to minimize the effects of the metal structure of the pylon on the magnetic field (the antenna best performance is obtained when there is no metal surface close to it).

In the below photos you can see the position of the LFA relating to the electrical cable and to the tower.

Low Field Antenna, coupling the primary circuit to the secondary circuit

In electrical engineering is defined as the primary circuit (fig. Circuito primario) the cable of power line while is referred as the secondary winding of the coil (fig. Avvolgimento circuito secondario) in the device LFA antenna.

In the left below figure is rappresented the physical proximity of grid power cable (fig. Circuito primario) flowed by I1 intensity current to the secondary circuit consisting of core and winding (fig. Nucleo circuito secondario - Avvolgimento circuito secondario).

In the right below figure are rappresented the magnetic field lines generated by power cable that is figured as its section (single black point of cable perpendicular to your screen). The magnetic field penetrate the below LFA antenna horizontal in the figure.

The sinusoidal magnetic field of the primary circuit coil (a theorical loop of infinite radius) induces a sinusoidal magnetic field inside the coil of secondary circuit contained in the LFA antenna. This induced field in turn generates across the coil a potential difference that applied to a load ( power supply ) generates a current.
The induced current is then rectified and stabilized by the DC power supply which feeds both the service electronics and the battery of lithium ion used as a buffer battery in case of maintenance of the power line.