Stanimir Valtchev

A low power wireless sensor network utilizing the neutral to earth voltage as a power source is developed and analyzed. It consists of a batteryless energy harvesting powered wireless sensor nodes, a gateway (if needed) and a local or remote server (if used). An invasive energy harvesting method to use the voltage between the neutral conductor and the ground conductor is used for the sensor module. A test network is built in a household. Statistics of the household's electric current and the corresponding neutral conductor's voltage is obtained during a two months period. The statistics is further processed to verify the working principle of the proposed network and to enlighten its strengths and weaknesses. The sensor nodes are developed using widely existing electronic components and don't require specialized devices.

Important requirements for the modern electric drives are the high overload capacity and a wide range of speed control. A two-phase adjustable low-power drive has these properties, but its implementation in small-scale mechanics is hindered by the need a frequency converter that provides a three-phase power grid into a two-phase network, which is important when the power of the mechanisms increases. Previous studies have already shown the possibility of using a typical frequency converter based on a three-phase full-bridge voltage inverter applying space-vector PWM method. The switching frequency of the inverter remains, unfortunately, relatively high. It is not possible to reduce this frequency without degrading the harmonic composition. The goal of this work is to develop an algorithm for controlling the two-phase electric drive system, while reducing the numberof commutations of the switching devices of the three-phase inverter, and at the same time keeping the deviations of the instantaneous values of the phase currents close enough to the reference.