Passive wireless monitoring of individual capacitor cans

A method, comprising:

• receiving, via a processor, a first signal from at least one sensor indicative of an operating characteristic associated with health of one or more capacitors within the capacitor can;
• and
• sending, via the processor, a second set of signals indicative of values of the operating characteristic to a receiving device outside of the capacitor can;
• wherein the second set of signals is configured to be transmitted from a patch antenna mounted on an exterior of the capacitor can to the receiving device.

A system, comprising:

• a first monitoring system configured to monitor a first capacitor can of a plurality of capacitor cans in a capacitor bank, wherein the first monitoring system comprises:
• at least one sensor configured to detect an operating characteristic associated with health of the first capacitor can and to output a sensor signal indicative of the operating characteristic;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to a memory, wherein the processor is configured to:
• receive the sensor signal from the at least one sensor;
• and
• control an optical signal between the first capacitor can and a second capacitor can to indicate the health of the first capacitor can.