700656Wind Technologies Limited – Study, assessment and proof of market potentials and economics of a new electricity harvesting technology for powering rotor instrumentation in variable speed drivesClosedGRD Proof of MarketInnovate UKThe UK's electricity consumption could be reduced by 1.6 TWh annually, equivalent to £160 million, if the average efficiency of industrial inverter-fed motors, also known as variable speed drives (VSDs), is increased by 1%. One way of achieving this, and also several other benefits such as extended lifetime, lower maintenance cost and higher reliability, is through real-time measurement and monitoring of rotor performance. However, powering the instrumentation and wireless data transmission system installed on the rotating shaft by batteries is not practical in most applications where the motor is required to run continuously for long intervals. In addition, batteries are expensive and bulky, and can cause significant reliability issues. These have prevented the adoption of rotor measurements in industrial VSDs where it can bring substantial efficiency and cost benefits. Wind Technologies has developed a patented energy harvesting technique, MAGtronics that extracts DC electricity from the leakage magnetic flux of rotor end-windings. MAGtronics, demonstrated on laboratory prototypes, can supply sufficient power for the instrumentation electronics on the rotor. This project aims to study, assess and quantify the economics and market potential of MAGtronics technology for industrial VSD applications.