This paper presents an overview of problems related to electronic conditioning of capacitive transducers used for the kinetic energy conversion. It proposes a methodology for the system-level and circuit-level design of conditioning electronics for electrostatic energy harvesters so to comply with the requirements of realistic applications: long-lasting operation, self-calibration, low consumed power and the implementation using the integrated circuit CMOS technology. An original architecture of a self-calibrating conditioning circuit is proposed. The paper gives a review of main design challenges related to this architecture, explains the motivation of the technology choice, provides insight into critical blocks and presents intermediate results of design.