Progress in self-powered, multi-parameter, micro sensor technologies for power metaverse and smart grids

Power metaverse and smart grids are the future of power systems, with a focus on intelligence, digitization, and informatization. Their foundation is electricity data acquisition by massive distributed sensors with features such as multi-parameter, miniaturization, high precision, self-powered, wireless transmission, and high reliability. The significant advances in high-performance, self-powered, micro sensors are achieved over recent years through the interdisciplinary convergence of nanotechnologies, MEMS technologies, and electronics. Although there have been several summaries of self-powered sensors in areas such as medical health, smart cities, and smart agriculture, there is currently no relevant review paper for power grids. Therefore, this paper first reviews the recent progress and practical applications of self-powered, multi-parameter and micro sensor technologies for power metaverse and smart grids. The review systematically presents the milestone progress in micro electrical and environmental sensing technologies, discusses energy harvesting methods suitable for power grids, elaborates on the applications of self-powered micro sensor systems in the power grids, and puts forward the challenges and future perspectives to construct smart grids based on self-powered multi-parameter sensors.