Sharma 2017

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 67 (2017) 704751
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser
Power-line communications for smart grid: Progress, challenges,

opportunities and status
Konark Sharma n, Lalit Mohan Saini
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Power-line communications (PLC) have proven to be susceptible to the next-generation power trans-
Received 12 June 2015 mission/distribution systems with end-to-end communication capability, considered as a revolutionary
Received in revised form and evolutionary regime of existing power grids. More importantly, with recent advancements in PLC
9 May 2016
technological regulation, standardization and certication have spurred a lot of interest in the eld of
Accepted 8 September 2016
advanced communication and control technologies for heterogeneous networks. These advancements
are expected to greatly enhance efciency and reliability of future power systems with renewable energy
Keywords: resources, as well as distributed intelligence and demand response (DR) programs. As various national
Distributed-power system and international organizations have started to draw PLC regulations, standards and technologies for
Power-line communications countries, these standards intend to determine important criteria such as bandwidth, modulation types,
Power-line transceivers
channel coding schemes, operating frequency and electromagnetic capability limits from xed indoor/
Renewable energy sources
outdoor applications to smart grid (SG) applications. Depending on the worldwide PLC regulation,
Smart meters
Smart grid technologies
standardization and technological developments, security schemes built around them can become in-
teroperable from a standard point of view, but still have incompatible congurations or different ma-
turity levels, or include non-standardized PLC functions.
Moreover, the PLC based systems/solutions for renewable energy integration, are also surveyed in
terms of distributed-power system (DPS) and distributed energy resources (DERs) units monitoring/
controlling and management purposes. Thus, a particular section is dedicated to PLC based systems/
solutions utilization of renewable energy sources (RESs) in SG covering all aspects of a monotype and
Abbreviations: AAC, All aluminium conductor; ABC, Aerial bundled cable; ACSR, Aluminium conductor steel reinforced; AVVC, Advanced Volt/VAr control; AMI, Automatic
metering infrastructure; AMR, Automatic meter reading; ASK, Amplitude shift keying; ATP/EMTP, Alternative transients program-electromagnetic transient program; BER,
Bit error rate; BFSK, Binary phase shift keying; BGA, Ball grid array; BPLC, Broadband power- line communication; CM, Common mode; CC, Copper cable; CENELEC, European
committee for electrotechnical standardization; DBPSK, Differential binary phase shift keying; DM, Differential mode; DMT, Discrete multi-tone; DMC, Dual mode com-
munications; DPSK, Differential-phase shift keying; DTR, Data transfer rate; DQPSK, Differential quadrature phase shift keying; DR, Demand response; EM, Electromagnetic;
EMI, Electromagnetic interference; EPR, Ethylene propylene rubber; FPGA, Field-programmable-gate-array; FSK, Frequency-shift-keying; HD, High-denition; HIF, High
impedance fault; HPF, High-pass lter; HTS, High-temperature superconducting; HV, High voltage; HTSSOP, Heat sink shrink small outline package; IBC, Intra-bundle
communications; I2C, Inter-integrated circuit; ISI, Inter symbol interference; KV, Kilovolts; LDN, Line detection device; LV, Low voltage; LQFP, Low prole quad at package;
MCM, Multi-carrier modulation; MII, Media independent interface; MIMO, Multi-input multi-output; MSK, Minimum shift keying; MTL, Multi-conductor transmission line;
MV, Medium voltage; NB-PLC, Narrow band power- line communication; NB-OFDM, Narrow band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; N-FSK, Narrow band fre-
quency shift keying; OFDM, Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; OFDMA, Orthogonal frequency division multiple access; PILC, Paper insulated lead covered; PA,
Process automation; PASK, Partial amplitude shift keying; PLC, Power- line communications; PLCC, Plastic leaded chip carrier; PSD, Power spectral density; PSK, Phase shift
keying; PVC, Poly vinyl chloride; QAM, Quadrature amplitude modulation; QBPLC, Quasi broadband power- line communication; QFN, Quad-at no-leads; QFP, Quad at
package; QPSK, Quadrature phase shift keying; QUCS, Quite universal circuit simulator; PRIME, Powerline intelligent metering evolution; RMS, Root mean square; SCAC, Steel
core aluminium clad; SCADA, Supervisory control and data acquisition; SCI, Serial communication interface; S-FSK, Spread frequency shift keying; SG, Smart grid; SHE2 MS,
Smart-home-environment-energy management-system; SIFONPRDEL, Simulator for network protocol development and adaptive network protocol for narrowband power-
line communication; SIP, Single in-line package; SISO, Single-input single-output; SMPS, Switch mode power supply; SNR, Signal to noise ratio; SOT, Small-outline transistor;
SPI, Serial peripheral interface; SSCM, Spread spectrum carrier modulation; SSM, Spread spectrum modulation; SWER, Single wire earth return; TDS-OFDM, Time domain
synchronous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; TP, Techno-pedagogical; TFBGA, Thin prole ne pitch ball grid array; TSSOP, Thin shrink small outline package;
TQFP, Thinner quad at package; UART, Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter; USB, Universal serial bus; VFQFPN, Very thin ne pitch quad at pack no-lead package;
WDM, Waveform detection method; WITS, Wideband indoor transmission channel simulator; XLPE, Cross linked polyethylene insulated power cable
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: konark123@gmail.com (K. Sharma).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.019
1364-0321/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Sharma, L.M. Saini / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 67 (2017) 704751 705
hybrid energy plants. Finally, the survey is carried on by reviewing the most recent and comprehensive
articles to highlight the importance of PLC in a logical way in the smart grid for readers.
& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents
1.Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
2.PLC classication and its standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
2.1. Ultra-narrow band power-line communication (UNB-PLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
2.2. Narrowband power-line communication (NB-PLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
2.3. Quasi-band power-line communication (QB-PLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708
2.4. Broadband power-line communication (BB-PLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708
3. PLC transmission and distribution analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
3.1. Underground cables characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
3.2. Overhead power-lines characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
4. PLC attenuation analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
5. Techno-economic benets and applications of low/medium and high-speed power-line communications transceivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
5.1. Low/medium speed PLC transceivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
5.2. High-speed PLC transceivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
6. PLC data-concentrators and hybrid data-concentrators analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726
7. FPGA based PLC solutions and their behavior analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
7.1. FPGA based NB-PLC solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
7.2. FPGA based BB-PLC solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
8. PLC security and privacy analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
8.1. NB-PLC based security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
8.2. BB-PLC based security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
9. Observations and recommendations of power-line communications based systems/solutions for renewable energies integration . . . . . . . . . . 739
10. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Acknowledgement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
1. Introduction Driven by the surging demand from electric utilities and rising
investments in worldwide SG infrastructures [2], the global market
The smart grid (SG) technologies are attracting growing at- for PLC is projected to exceed US$7.0 billion by 2020. Existing
tention owing to their inherent capacity to realize sustainable underground cabling and overhead lines of SG infrastructures al-
energy management system by using intelligent grids for future low for low-cost adaptation of PLC technologies. With the latest
prospective. SG infrastructures require an interactive, bi-direc- regulation, standardization and certication in PLC technologies,
tional communication technique/platform between power grid worldwide growth is also projected for the PLC systems market in
companies and consumers for enhancing the energy efciency, various end-user applications (i.e. advanced metering infra-
safety, and reliability of electricity transmission systems. For this structure (AMI), remote telemetry systems, high-speed broadband
purpose, power-line communications (PLC) have proven to be a internet access equipment, vehicle automation, end-to-end com-
feasible alternative, which gives favorable promises for end-to-end munications, smart home, electric vehicle charging, as well as in
communications, from the level of household electric appliances, micro-inverter for alternative sources of energy, lighting and
monitoring/controlling applications to distributed generation (DG) temperature monitor/control). It is critical to analyze the PLC
level based management/control applications with a free existing systems security threats and vulnerabilities exploited by attackers,
network, as shown in Fig. 1. As compared to wireless access due to the increased PLC technological standardization and certi-
technologies (i.e. general packet radio service (GPRS), the universal cation, increased connectivity and openness to the SG networks,
mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), radio frequency (RF) and increased use of PLC based hardware and software protocols,
mesh based system, worldwide interoperability for microwave and the SG infrastructure is getting more vulnerable to internal/
access (WiMax) etc. PLC offers the following advantages [1]: external security attacks.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the suitability of PLC
Immediate establishment of communication during the in- standards for worldwide SG applications through a detailed survey
stallation process and, thereby, avoidance of any costly waiting of state-of-the-art technologies, related research work in progress
time for the installer, and challenges calling for new approaches. PLC technology clas-
No antenna tuning or adjustment of antenna direction required sication and its regulation, standardization and certication are
Communication is also possible in difcult environments (for investigated in Section 2. PLC-based transmission and distribution
example, metal-shielded cases, deep underground installations, through various xed-indoor/outdoor underground cables and
etc.), where no other access technology can provide a solution overhead-lines are reviewed in Section 3 and the advantages and
Antenna cannot be removed during an operation (tampering limitations of various PLC standards/technologies with varying
protection); antenna cannot fail (reliability). The fact that the distance are given in Section 4. Techno-economic benets and
communication interface is powered by 230 V offers intrinsic applications of low/medium and high-speed PLC transceivers are
security against tampering explained in Section 5, PLC data-concentrators and hybrid
706 K. Sharma, L.M. Saini / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 67 (2017) 704751
Fig. 1. Power-line communications (PLC) based smart grid (SG) power system architecture.
data-concentrators are described in Section 6, Field-program- Broadband power-line communication (BB-PLC)

mable-gate-array (FPGA) based PLC solutions (i.e. transceiver, si-
mulator, and emulator) are mentioned in Section 7, respectively. 2.1. Ultra-narrow band power-line communication (UNB-PLC)
The performances of PLC devices and their security solutions with
latest standards are analyzed in Section 8. Worldwide observations During 1922, PLC for telemetry applications over high voltage
and recommendations of PLC based systems/solutions for renew- (HV) lines in the frequency range of 15500 kHz through dis-
able energies integration are reviewed in Section 9. And nally, the tribution lines was implemented [6]. In 1930, ultra narrowband
paper is concluded in Section 10. power-line communication (UNB-PLC) named two-way automatic
communication system (TWACS) was introduced by (Aclara, Su-
mitomo) [7]. The TWACS concept was based on the premise that
2. PLC classication and its standardization the network is designed for optimum 60 Hz power transmission
and distribution system.
Firstly, PLC signal ( 500 Hz) was used to control the street-
lights in New York City [3]. As technology progressed, it was im- 2.2. Narrowband power-line communication (NB-PLC)
plemented for reliably data transmission applications (i.e. speech,
energy management data and power system protection signals) During 1975, the X-10 PLC protocol ( 120 kHz) was invented
over the wire-lines, which were primarily designed to distribute by Pico Electronics in Glenrothes, Scotland [8]. The X-10 protocol
electrical energy. It has already proven its effectiveness for one of transmits binary data using the amplitude modulation (AM)
the largest and successful PLC based smart metering deployment technique for PLC based applications (i.e. light and small appliance
[4] and has been followed by worldwide smart metering infra- control), shown in Fig. 3. The X-10 protocol [9], led the worldwide
structure (SMI) for SG applications [5]. A worldwide comparison of way with PLC based applications and could easily be considered
PLC standards/modulation technologies based energy-metering/ the father of modern smart home applications, as shown in Fig. 4.
smart-metering deployments are shown in Table 1. Presently, PLC But the protocol was plagued with problems of poor performance,
with their technological advancements/developments as per var- distance limitations, power phase limitations and lack of relia-
ious existing/ongoing PLC regulations and standards, frequency bility. Presently, narrowband power-line communication (NB-PLC)
bands (0.3 kHz250 MHz), data transfer speeds (100 Bps1.8 Gbps) in North America, China and Japan [10], within frequency range up
and modulation schemes, can be classied into four categories, as to 500 kHz is in practice and offers a reasonably wide commu-
shown in Fig. 2: nications bandwidth for PLC applications. Frequencies of 148.5 kHz
and less have been approved by the European Committee for
Ultra-narrow band power-line communication (UNB-PLC) Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) for broadly deployable
Narrowband power-line communication (NB-PLC) PLC for based systems/applications, as shown in Fig. 5. From high
Quasi band power-line communication (QB-PLC) voltage, covering medium voltage to low voltage [11], from
Table 1 G3-PLC (ITU-T G.9903)

Comparison of worldwide PLC regulations/standards and modulation-technologies IEEE 1901.22013
based energy-metering/ smart-metering deployments. ITU-T G.hnem
Country Number of en- Modulation type / Modulation type /
ergy meters / Standard (Real- Standard (Simulation) PRIME standard appeared in 2007 [17], which implements
smart meters time) multi-carrier modulation technique during LV networks and is
gaining prominence as a solution for SG developments. PRIME
Spain 200000 PRIME [4]
Spain 352 PRIME [17] standard is supported by the PRIME Alliance, with over 50 mem-
China 110873 Multi-carrier mod- bers, chaired by Iberdrola, a Spanish public multinational electric
ulation (MCM) [26] utility company. Among the different NB-PLC standards, PRIME
China 842 HomePlug GP [29]
with 395 kHz frequency and data transfer rate up to 130 Kbps is
Japan 177 - [58]
Italy 800 Half-duplex (FSK) [91] already proven standard/technology for one of the largest PRIME
Spain 604 DBPSK [197] based SMI deployment [4]. Energex [18], an Australian electric
South Korea 77 BB-PLC [198] power-distribution company owned by the Government of
South Korea 100 NB-PLC [199]
Taiwan 140 - [200]
Queensland, is currently evaluating PRIME based PLC infra-
United 150 FSK, MSK, BPSK, DPSK, structure to determine its suitability within Australian network
Kingdom PSK, QPSK 16-QAM, environment. The key objective of the trial is to cover both over-
64-QAM [201] head and underground areas and understand about the next-
China 378 HomePlug AV
[202]
generation remote metering platform.
Japan 500 -[203] G3-PLC Alliance developed an SG oriented communication
Canada 1200 OFDM/PRIME [204] protocol such as physical (PHY), media access control (MAC) layer
Cameroon 1800 PASK [205]
and the 6LoWPAN network layer, as shown in Fig. 8, First, the G3-
United 2000 EN50065-1 [206]
Kingdom PLC eld performed on 5 nodes and their eld-test results were
USA 14524 - [207] presented at Metering Barcelona in 2009. Although transformer
Spain 2000 G3-PLC [208] resonant frequency up to 490 kHz, can also be used for transfer-
ring PLC signals [20]. But PLC signal within 9500 kHz frequency
band faces severe channels and noisy conditions because of the
transmission to distribution networks, NB-PLC system can support
need to cross the distribution-transformers and capacitor banks.
various applications as illustrated in Fig. 6, and it has appeared to
G3-PLC standard [21], with high data rate, high-speed and long-
be more attractive to electric utilities (i.e. power delivery, com-
range communication capability over the existing power-line grid
munications, and sensing/controlling applications). Remote energy
management over power-lines and internet (REMPLI) [12], is also are also able to cross distribution-transformers, as shown in Fig. 9.
IEEE 1901.22013 working group started with PLC discussions
NB-PLC based efcient energy management system, which pro-
among several companies attending automotive standards meet-
vides high reliability of data transmission up to 500 Kbps. The
system is an improved PLC concept and internet protocol (IP) ings in early 2009 [22]. The working group developed low-fre-
based backbones, which create solutions for energy savings in quency (up to 500 kHz) based NB-PLC standard for global NB-PLC
large-scale energy distribution network's primary applications (i.e. based systems/solutions. IEEE 1902.22013 standard based NB-PLC
meter reading and remote control of the distribution network systems/solutions are benecial for in-home networking applica-
system). As per consumer requirements, additional add-on ser- tions, electric vehicle to charging station and grid to utility meter.
vices/functions (i.e. loss of neutral or ground protection circuit, The IEEE 1901.22013 standard based NB-PLC devices/solutions are
automatic transformer control, load balancing, automatic billing also able to communicate through MV to LV type distribution-
and prepayment, fraud detection) have been realized with the transformers.
help of local decentralized intelligence of the REMPLI system ITU-T G.hnem standard [23], denes a unied NB-PLC OFDM-
components [13], as shown in Fig. 7. based technology and targets multiple SG applications: smart
DLC VITP4IP project [14], allows advanced network monitor- metering, distributed automation, in-home energy management,
ing and control, intelligent metering, and innovative service de- generic home automation, car charging, and others, using IPv6 as
livery for power generators, utilities and user of local power-dis- the main networking protocol. ITU-T recommendations G.9955 (G.
tribution grid using the IP communication protocol suite over NB- hnem PHY layer) and G.9956 (G.hnem data link layer) were ap-
PLC (150500 kHz) networks. High impedance faults (HIFs) de- proved in February 2011.
tection and their exact location investigation is a very challenging G3-PLC and PRIME technologies can penetrate electrical de-
and important issue for SG deployments. For this, NB-PLC device vices (i.e. distribution-transformers, capacitor banks), and proved
(395 kHz) can locate exact HIF with high accuracy [15]. PLC access to be feasible and applicable for advanced distribution automation
network (PLC-AN), which is NB-PLC based solution has recently (ADA) systems, which is one of the key application of SG infra-
absorbed interest across medium-voltage (MV) to low-voltage (LV) structure [24]. To date, both technologies (i.e. G3-PLC and PRIME)
distribution based SG applications [16]. PLC-opportunistic routing are open and have been adopted as starting points of the ofcial
(PLC-OR) is a new promising paradigm which successfully reduces ITU standard, G 9955 Narrow-band OFDM based PLC transceivers
packet transmission time compared to the traditional sequential physical (PHY) layer specication [1]. In order to satisfy the ex-
routing while achieving the same level of reliability during packet ibility requirements for a multi-standard system, the multi-pro-
transmission between substations and end users or the internet tocol PLC analyser (MP-PLCA) [25], covers the frequency band up
access to homes. As per latest PLC regulation, standardization and to 400 kHz (i.e. as in practice for PRIME or G3-PLC based standard
technological developments, high data rate NB-PLC protocols can devices) and has been successfully analyzed during industrial
be categorized in four ways: power-distribution network. After careful selection of transmis-
sion frequency band, it has been conrmed that PLC signal can
PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) (ITU-T successfully cover distances longer than 100 m for industrial
G.9904) applications.
PLC
UNB-PLC [7] NB-PLC QB-PLC [26] BB-PLC

0.3-3kHz and 30-300 Hz
100-120 Bps 1-10 MHz
2 Mbps
X-10 KONNEX IEC 61334 ISO/IEC14908-3 G3-PLC [20] PRIME [4] IEEE P1901.2-2013 ITU G.hnem
[8] EN50065-1 [1] [11] [22] [23]
3-490 kHz 3-95 kHz
[90] 86-131 kHz 5.6-46 Kbps
3-95 kHz 130 Kbps 9-500 kHz Up to 500 kHz
95-125 2.4 Kbps 3.6-5.4 Kbps 500 Kbps
125-140 kHz DBPSK, 1 Mbps
kHz DBPSK,
1.2-2.4 Kbps S-FSK FSK, S-FSK DQPSK, DBPSK, DQPSK,
AM DQPSK, BPSK, QPSK,
D8PSK, BPSK, D8PSK, BPSK, QPSK,
MFSK 16-QAM
QPSK, 8PSK, 8PSK,
16-QAM 16-QAM
HomePlug Green HomePlug AV HD-PLC [36] IEEE P1901-2010 [32] G.hn (G.9960) [37] HomePlug AV2
PHY (GP) [34] PHY [35] [38]
2-28 MHz Below 100 MHz Below 100 MHz
1.8-30 MHz 240 Mbps Up to 500 Mbps Up to 1Gbps 2-86 MHz
1.8-30 MHz Up to 1.8 Gbps
3.8 -9.8 Mbps 4-200 Mbps
Wavelet OFDM OFDM, Wavelet OFDM 4096-QAM (2 streams)
QPSK BPSK, QPSK, 16- (12-bit QAM)
QAM, 64-QAM, 4096-QAM
256-QAM,
1024-QAM
Fig. 2. Classication of PLC standards.
Fig. 3. X-10 protocol based devices (a) BSR system X-10 with lamp and appliance module (b) BSR system X-10 remote transmitter [8].
2.3. Quasi-band power-line communication (QB-PLC) Kai Feng, Hai Yan and Xi'An, and has covered over 216,000 fa-
milies/houses. Dual-mode communication products are supposed
China in the recent years has developed quasi-stationary to combine the NB-PLC module and wireless communication
broadband power-line communication (QB-PLC) which is an in- module on single chip. The module can evaluate both the PLC and
tegration of NB-PLC and broadband power-line communication the wireless channels, and once one type of communication per-
(BB-PLC) technologies, brings advantages within frequency band forms badly, another auxiliary type will be switched on to take its
(witin 110 MHz) and delivers high speed data up to 2Mbps, for place.
long distances AMI networks/systems. It is useful from home-area-
networks (HANs) based applications to wide-area-management- 2.4. Broadband power-line communication (BB-PLC)
system (WAMS) [26]. Vision Co. Ltd.-a Chinese company, has al-
ready developed a series of dual-mode IC products/solutions Broadband power-line communication (BB-PLC) technologies
which has been implemented in different trial projects in LuoYang, uses radio frequencies on top of the mains electricity supply and
Fig. 4. X-10 controller for in-home based applications [9].
Hermitian-symmetric orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

(HS-OFDM) together with equal gain combining (EGC), selection
combining (SC) and maximal ratio combining techniques, achieve
maximum data rates [28]. Presently, BB-PLC based AMR networks
increase data throughput up to 200 Mbps between consumer
utilities and distribution network operators [29]. In SG scenario,
hospitals are also becoming smart and adopting E-HEALTH ser-
vices, which are efcient as compared to traditional healthcare
services [30]. Hybrid PLC and visible light communication (VLC)
within bandwidth of 8 MHz, supports data rate up to 48 Mbps for
OFDM based BB-PLC solution, and is about to replace the con-
ventional wireless communication system in hospital applications.
Different BB-PLC standards have different bandwidth and latency
requirements. In order to promote adoption, compliance and en-
Fig. 5. CENELEC bands specications (9148.5 kHz) for narrowband power-line able interoperability between various PLC application based device
communication (NB-PLC) based solutions/applications [10].
manufacturers and vendors, the ITU Telecommunication Standar-
dization sector (ITU-T) and the Institute of Electrical and Electro-
provide real-time connectivity within the utility [27]. Using the
nics Engineers (IEEE) have been working to develop globally
existing power grid itself as the channel for information and
adopted BB-PLC standards (i.e. ITU-T Gigabit Home Networking (G.
highly energy efcient, economical solution for real-time appli-
hn) (G.9960/G.9961) and IEEE P1901 standard). To date, ITU-T G.hn
cations (i.e. SMs, electric vehicles (EVs), substations and other
devices), the BB-PLC technologies are key components in the standard is the rst standard to dene major wired communica-
worldwide SG infrastructure deployment, as shown in Fig. 10. tion media types (i.e. coaxial cables, power-lines, phone lines) [31].
With the help of multicarrier communication technologies and The IEEE P1901 working group/standards started in June 2005
wider frequency spectrum (1.8250 MHz), it is already in practices [32]. The working group maintain/extend the standards, and is
for telecommunication services like internet access, voice-over-IP sponsored by the IEEE Power Line Communication Standard
based communications technology, and audio/video (AV) stream- Committee (PLCSC). The scope of the PLCSC [33] is to develop and
ing applications. Based on in-home based BB-PLC measurement maintain following three requirements for present and future SG
campaign (within 1.7100 MHz) in Brazil, it has been proved that deployments, as shown in Fig. 11.
Fig. 6. Narrowband power-line communication (NB-PLC) for smart power-grids (i.e. from transmission to distribution) applications [11].
Fig. 7. Remote energy management over power-lines and internet (REMPLI) system [13].
Standards in communications and networking over power-lines based on their implementers for necessary specication, but are
including in access, in-home and enterprise, in-vehicle and not mandatory to include both for every operation. The FFT PHY
vehicle to grid (V2G) applications layer is derived from HomePlug AV technology and is deployed in
Standards related to heterogeneous networking involving PLC in HomePlug based products/solutions. The Wavelet PHY layer is
various networking scenarios derived from HD-PLC technology and is implemented in HD-PLC-
Standards relevant to equipment for PLC or other modes of based products/solutions. The IEEE P1901 standards PHY layer and
communication that are designed for power grid applications media access control (MAC) layer specications can be categorized
which is to be deployed on power utility facilities and interfaces in four ways for different applications, as shown in Fig. 12.
to communication equipment directly connected to the power
grid In-home broadband over power-line (PHY and MAC layer)
Access Broadband over power-line (PHY and MAC layer)
The 1901 standards include two different physical layers (i.e. PHY and MAC for transportation system
one is termed as FFT based OFDM modulation and another based Coexistence among different PLC systems
on wavelet OFDM modulation). Each PHY layer is optional, and
The HomePlug Green PHY (GP) standard is a variant of the
HomePlug AV (for audio/video) or IEEE1901 standard, respectively,
and in practice across globe, allows for communications between
devices of both standards [34]. The standard has been developed
especially to allow for easy, cost-efcient, and reliable data
transfer within the home applications, and it is arousing more
interest among people, those involved in various market sectors
(i.e. renewable energy, electro-mobility, electronic counter read-
ing, the smart HAN clients and building automation, as shown in
Fig. 13.
HPAV standard is generally termed as next-generation tech-
nology from the HomePlug Powerline Alliance [35]. HPAV archi-
tecture, as shown in Fig. 14, provides high-quality, multi-stream,
entertainment oriented networking over existing AC wiring within
the home applications. Inter-operable with HomePlug 1.0 stan-
dard, HPAV standard employs advanced PHY layer and MAC layer
Fig. 8. G3-PLC standard communication terminal protocols stack [19]. technologies with data speed up to 200 Mbps over power-line
Fig. 9. Schematic of G3-PLC communications. Crossing distribution-transformers from high-voltage (HV), covering low-voltage (LV) to medium-voltage (MV) power-lines
reduces the number of access points required in a utility's network [21].
network for video/audio and data streaming based applications. to 1500 m for internet facilities and up to 100 m for in-home/
The PHY Layer over noisy power-line channels utilizes 200 Mbps buildings networks applications, smart energy applications,
channel rate to provide a 150 Mbps information rate during robust transportation platforms (vehicle), and other data distribution
mode operation. applications [32].
IEEE 1901 HD-PLC standard PHY layer uses wavelet OFDM G.hn (G.9960) standard was granted approval in 2009 [37]. Its
technology to provide high efcient transmission and coexist with system architecture and physical layer supports data rates up to
existing systems (shortwave broadcasts and ham radio) [36]. In the 1 Gbps. G.hn standard species a coded modulation scheme based
HD-PLC, PHY speed up to 240 Mbps is achieved at a bandwidth of on quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QCLDPC) codes and
26 MHz. In addition, high-quality, highly reliable communications quadrature amplitude modulations (QAMs). The maximum QAM
are achieved in poor quality home power transmission routes constellation supported by G.hn standard is 4096-QAM (12-bit
through the use of Reed-Solomon and convolutional/Viterbi or low QAM). G.hn standard supports popular protocols like IPv4 and
density parity check convolutional codes (LDPC-CC). IPv6, as shown in Fig. 15. G.hn standard based PLC networks can
The IEEE P1901-2010 standard (below 100 MHz ) at PHY layer is easily be integrated with IP-based networks. Well-known network
responsible to transmit data up to 500 Mbps speed. Presently the management protocols like the Simple Network Management
standard is in practices with all BB-BPLC devices, within range up Protocol (SNMP) can manage IP networks, including G.hn standard
Fig. 10. Smart grids deployments with broadband power-line communication (BB-PLC) technologies [27].
Fig. 11. Development/Up-gradation of IEEE PLC standards for present and future smart grid requirements [33].
Fig. 12. Scope of IEEE P1901 standards for various smart grid applications [33].
Fig. 13. HomePlug Green PHY (GP) standard targets home area networks (HANs) based smart grid applications [34].
based PLC devices. modulation technique (within 286 MHz frequency range) on AC
In the recent past, the power-lines were not able to deliver lines, and achieves a peak PHY data rate of more than 1.5 Gbps
high-denition (HD) and three-dimensional (3D) videos. But speed for HD/3D videos and home connectivity solutions. As
nowadays with the help of HomePlug AV2 [38], which is an compared to classical PLC solutions, nowadays latest NB-PLC and
emerging BB-PLC standard, uses 4096-QAM sub-carrier BB-PLC based solutions can transfer data with different speeds for
Fig. 14. Architectural diagram of HomePlug AV (HPAV) standard [35].
cables are difcult to repair, and their repairing may takes 59

days [41]. Underground cables have signicant thermal capacity,
which permits fewer overloading for long route applications [42].
These cables suffer from various types of noise; inter-symbol-in-
terference (ISI), low impedance and electro-magnetic interference
(EMI) due to multi-branches. NB-PLC technologies with fre-
quencies above 1 MHz are attenuated due to capacitive coupling
between earth and power cables [11]. But this characteristic allows
NB-PLC based AMI network applications to cover distances up to
300 m, over underground LV networks [43]. Branch length in-
creases with the number of notches and signal distortion increases
[44]. The position of notches in frequency response depends upon
branched line length. During LV network, as the number of dis-
tributed branches increases, the amplitude of notched points also
increases [45], and cables require voltage compensators after 500
700 m distance [46]. Electromagnetic (EM) shielding on LV cables
can also mitigate noise problems of BB-PLC based applications
[47]. Underground BB-PLC network performance depends on EMI
and multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) transmission systems
across cable connections. For this (N 1)-hop repeaters systems
can reduce underground BB-PLC cables EMI losses [48]. As per
South Korea's regulation, minimum of 9600 Bps speed is required
for underground BB-PLC based AMR systems [49]. It has been
proved with the help of Techno-pedagogical (TP) method, that the
Fig. 15. Block diagram of G.hn standard protocol stack [37]. low-loss nature of underground LV based BB-PLC systems guar-
antees the further BB-PLC network coexistence towards a unied
various applications and their worldwide comparison with varying transmission/distribution SG power grid deployment [50]. Com-
distance can be found in Table 2. parison of underground cables used for PLC based xed indoor/
outdoor and underground network installations are given in
Table 3.
3. PLC transmission and distribution analysis
3.2. Overhead power-lines characteristics
Different PLC standards use different frequency bands, and
depending on the signal transmission and distribution line types, Conventional overhead-lines are usually mounted on cross-
such as xed indoor/outdoor underground power cables and arms, causes signicant interference above 2 MHz frequency, but
overhead-lines. They differ in transmission types, network struc- single-wire-earth-return (SWER) lines have low radiation loss [51].
ture and physical properties of cables [39]. These lines over long distances also suffer from the following
problems, viz.: extreme weather conditions, brownout, capacitive
3.1. Underground cables characteristics and inductive loads technical unbalance, phase load unbalance,
low current earth leakages, over current and harmonics, high
Underground cables are surrounded by soil; and their heat is impedance faults (HIFs) in transmission/distribution networks
not properly dispersed. If cables are laid together, they may heat [52]. They occur when a conductor touches tree branches or a
each other. Slower heat dispersal and mutual warming of cable, broken conductor touches the ground. PLC devices are useful for
limits electricity ow [40]. The cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE), exact fault detection and location of HIFs in multi-conductor
Table 2
Comparison of varying distance with data transfer rate of various PLC based applications.
Distance covered Data rate Application type Modulation type / PLC Country
achieved standard
700 m 10 Kbps Low-voltage (LV) based public address system (PAS) of an intelligent SSCM China [96]
housing estate
1.58 km (i) 3035 Kbps G3-PLC based smart grid (SG) applications (i) BPSK/ G3-PLC USA [107]
(ii) 100 Kbps (ii) 8PSK/ G3-PLC
5001500 m 100380 Kbps G3-PLC based smart metering applications OFDM/ G3-PLC Thailand [173]
23136 m 122.9 Kbps PRIME based SG applications PRIME Spain [209]
10 m 0.61.2 Kbps Design and implementation of an efcient sensor network (SN) over stan- ASK UAE [210]
dard power-lines
40100 m 0.62.4 Kbps Amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation based utility applications in micro ASK Nepal [211]
hydro power systems
10 m 180 Kbps Comparison of radiation measurements in PLC systems QPSK, QAM Germany [212]
25 m 40400 Kbps Dispersed tone PLC modem for networked appliances DBPSK, DQPSK Japan [213]
30 m 1.25 Kbps Analysis and characterization of multi-standard PLC system DBPSK Italy [214]
100 m 36.2 Kbps G3-PLC based smart grid (SG) applications DBPSK Romania [215]
180 m 200 Mbps BB-PLC modems for onshore oil and gas industry applications OFDM Brazil [216]
200 m6.43 km 1.72 Kbps G3-PLC based SG applications DQPSK/ G3-PLC France [217]
9.6 Kbps S-FSK based PLC modem for automatic meter reading (AMR) applications S-FSK Tunisia [218]
200 m 10 Kbps Bit error rate (BER) improvement of PLC signal direct-sequence code divi- DS-CDMA Thailand [219]
sion multiple access (DS-CDMA) technique
700 m 21 Mbps BB-PLC modem for two-way digital video transmission over medium-vol- TDS-OFDM China [220]
tage (MV) power-lines
800 m 57.6100 Kbps Low-voltage (LV) based PLC implementation on eld-programmable-gate- QPSK China [221]
array (FPGA) platform
1.6 km (i) 2 Kbps BPSK modulation based smart metering applications (i) BPSK (A band) Czech Republic [222]
(ii) 5.4 Kbps (ii) BPSK (C band)
500 m 47.5 Kbps Broadcasting control of intelligent air conditioners NB-PLC Taiwan [223]
overhead transmission/distribution networks [53,54]. Comparison allows remote renewable and decentralized energy sources (i.e.
of overhead lines/cables used for PLC-based applications for xed wind-farms, photovoltaic (PV)) panels [63]. Using differential code
indoor/outdoor and overhead network installations are given in shift keying (DCSK) modulation, error free transmission at
Table 4. HV transmission lines for BB-PLC applications depends on 2.5 Kbps speed over 90 dB attenuation were achieved [64]. PLC
the frequency, coupling scheme, physical properties of cables, the communication through MV to MV distribution lines, have high
multi-conductor transmission line (MTL) conguration, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than MV to LV distribution lines. During
branch types [55]. Intra-bundle communications (IBC) scheme G3-PLC applications, insertion loss must be within 35.990.6 kHz
[56], and shield wire segmentation [57] can reduce power loss and frequency band, and able to reject 19.1 kV, 50 Hz signal to avoid
improve efciency during power transmission. AMR systems data overloading hazards [65]. During in-home/buildings area PLC
during overhead transmission lines can be improved with wave- networks, G3-PLC devices performance decreases as the number
form detection method (WDM) [58]. Different simulation tools as of network nodes increases. Therefore, a convergent network (i.e.
mentioned in Table 5 are currently available in markets to analyze Ethernet and G3-PLC devices) with time division multiple access
the xed indoor/outdoor cables and overhead transmission/dis- (TDMA) scheme using routers and switching nodes can improve
tribution lines performance covering PLC based applications and PLC network performance [66]. Comparison of varying distance
their potential extensions to operate in PLC networks. with attenuation of PLC based transmission/ distribution analysis
is given in Table 6.
As per global electricity acts/norms/requirements, the voltage
4. PLC attenuation analysis carried between live wire and the neutral differs from country to
country. In most of Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, the
Attenuation starts from the wiring topologies (60 Hz for 120 V/ single-phase mains voltage is between 220 V and 240 V, with
240 V wiring and 50 Hz for 230 V) due to differences in HANs, 230 V being the nominal voltage in the majority of the places.
building area networks (BANs) sizes and their densities, covering North America, Japan, Taiwan and some parts of northern South
local electrical building codes and LV line data-concentrators, and America use a mains voltage between 100 V and 127 V [67]. Cross-
their connectivity to wide area networks (WANs) utilities (i.e. phase communication is one of the main PLC challenge in split-
switches) and substation-transformers through MV lines. An MV phase and three-phase power systems. Single-phase supply is
network is a challenging environment due to its low bandwidth employed for in-home/apartment based applications and there is
and effects of packet loss. Packet success rate strongly depends no issue of cross-phase PLC signal attenuation. Although in some
upon the distance between two communicating nodes [59]. Data countries in Europe along with Canada, Germany and USA, two-
throughput and frequency band limits vary widely over a given phases/multi-phases or service-lines are supplied. Cross-phase
location, distance, PLC standards and modulation techniques. coupling [68], is one of the main PLC challenges in split-phase and
Short range data transmission with low bit rates using traditional three-phase applications, is shown in Fig. 16. Since PLC transcei-
modulation techniques like amplitude shift keying (ASK) and FSK vers can be connected between any phase and neutral or even
suffers attenuation up to 70 dB. For long distances coverage be- between phases, the signals, typically transmitted between one
tween distributed renewable energy systems up to 25 km, quad- phase and neutral, have to be coupled onto all wires. Despite some
rature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation scheme is efcient "natural" coupling that exists between phases, the installation of
and reliable [60], and also has ability to cross distribution-trans- coupling devices is usually required, particularly in NB-PLC sys-
formers [61]. It can restrict attenuation to less than 15 dB [62], and tems [67]. In North American homes, during the second half of
Table 3
Comparison of underground cables used for PLC-based xed indoor/outdoor and underground network installations.
S. No. Cable length Cable type Cross sec- Standard Voltage (KV)/Fre- Mode of operation Application Country
tional area specication quency range type
(mm2) Real- Simulation
time
1. 10 m 150 HD 603 0.61 (130 MHz) Power Switzerland

distribution [40]
GKN [224]
2. 835 m (i) 150 (i) NFC 32321 (i) 0.61 Power Italy [42]
(30 Hz 100 MHz) distribution
(i) PA [225]
(ii) 150 (ii) VDE 0250 (ii) 3.66
813 (30 Hz 100 MHz)
(ii)
PB [226]
(iii) 185 (iii) GB12706 (iii) 0.6 1
(30 Hz 100 MHz)
(iii)
XLPE [227]
3. 200 m 70 IEC 60502 0.61 ( Below 100 Power Greece [50]
MHz) distribution
HN33S33 [50]
4. 4 km 6 IEC 0.61 ( Up to 95 kHz) Power Netherlands
60287 1 1 distribution [229]
2006
PILC
[228]
5. 90210 m 2.510 IEC 60502 1 0.61 ( Up to 110 kHz) Lighting Greece [231]
application
J1VV
[230]
6. 50150 IEC60502 8.715 (120 MHz) Lab Canada [233]

experiment
(i) NAYY
[232]
(ii)
Table 3 (continued )
tional area specication quency range type
time
AL3 95XLPE [234]

7. 350 m 95 IEC60502 0.61 (10500 kHz) Lab Belgium
experiment [236]
Copper
cable [235]
8. (i) 122 m (i) 21 (i) SFS 4880 0.61 (150490 kHz) Lab/Field Finland [239]
experiment
(i) AMCMK
[237]
(ii) 198 m (ii) 16 (ii) IEC
60502 1
(ii) AXMK
[238]
2004, it has been proved during on-eld trials of high-speed BB- frequency (125165 kHz) and the transmitting speed (100/200 bps
PLC prototype systems, that cross-phase connections are not an or 120/240 bps), the CCM were selected as switches for lighting
issue [69]. The poly-phase mains coming to the home may exhibit controller, sub-controllers, control adapters, sensor adapters and
very low impedance because of the additional capacitance con- wall switches [71]. After 1989, the rst large-scale PLC based in-
tributed by the inter-winding capacitance of the main transformer. frastructure deployment took place, when the development trends
The combined paralleled impedance from these cables in the high- in CMOS technology driven by different semiconductor chip de-
frequency (HF) band at the bus bars (ZBUS), as shown in Fig. 17, sign companies emphasis on PLC based system/functions im-
which is very low at such frequencies. The low bus impedance plemented on a chip. The PLC chip offered fully operational com-
exists regardless of whether any major electric appliance is actu- munication solutions for a wide range of household/industrial
ally turned on, as shown in Fig. 18. With a poly-phase electric applications. ST Microelectronics designed a standard 4.5-m
appliance turned on, the bus impedance may drop even lower in CMOS double-poly double-metal technology based four channel
the form of complex impedance. In any case, the bus impedance, half-duplex FSK transceiver IC [72]. As per IEC 1334-5-1 standard,
ZBUS, is always sufciently low to bridge with Intellon's HomePlug Alcatel microelectronics implemented 0.5 mm CMOS mixed-mode
standard based PLC transceiver signals across phases without process based S-FSK modem IC with data speed up to 1.2 Kbps
signicant attenuation. [73]. A 0.6-m CMOS mixed-mode process based integrated PLC
transceiver IC, embodied with suitable digital signal processor
(DSP) and microprocessor unit (MPU) within frequency range of 4
5. Techno-economic benets and applications of low/medium 38 kHz, transmits data up to 4.8107 Kbps [74]. The 0.8-m CMOS
and high-speed power-line communications transceivers double-poly double-metal (DPDM) technology based mixed-signal
half-duplex IC, transmits data at 10 Kbps speed and cover distance
PLC transceiver is a cost-effective and versatile communica- up to 1 km [75]. In 2007, South Korea designed a 0.35-m CMOS
tions option, which can be readily integrated for broadcasting technology based PLC transceiver IC with adaptive signal tech-
various monitoring and control functions into tomorrow's SG ap- nology and its performance also veried with networked various
plications, as shown in Fig. 19. PLC transceiver also has various consumer electronics (CE) devices [76]. Recently designed PLC
applications in distributed energy generation systems (DESs), receiver, fabricated in CMOS 0.18-m technology, can tolerate a
transportation (electronic controls in automotive networks air- voltage drop of up to 0.423 V for a data rate of 10 Mbps speed [77].
planes, and trains), and safety systems (anti-lock breaking system Overcoming the well known drawbacks (i.e. classical PLC tech-
(ABS)), electric stability program (ESP) and electromechanical nologies with low speed data rates) and complying with latest PLC
brake-by-wire (EMB) systems to reduce wiring complexity, standardization/certication, mostly semiconductor chip design
weight, and ultimately cost for in-vehicles communication. During companies presently are geared towards providing AC/DC power-
tracking the impedance variation at the FCC band, it has been lines based NB-PLC/BB-PLC transceivers in various manners such
found that PLC transceivers over AC/DC lines and unpowered as analog-front-end (AFE), system-on-chip (SoC) and smart-ap-
twisted pair distribution networks, can adaptively adjust their plication-on-chip (SaoC) manner.
operating behaviors to operate more effectively, efciently and be The MAX2991 [78] is the rst AFE, specically designed for
useful for home appliances, health monitoring purposes [70]. OFDM modulated signal transmission over power-lines operating
During 1989 in Japan, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and The Kansai in the 10490 kHz band and its programmable lters allow com-
Electrical Power Co. jointly developed the PLC communication pliance with CENELEC, FCC, and ARIB standards use the same
control module (CCM) for home lighting control system. Using device.
amplitude modulation (AM), tone-burst type, the carrier The EV8080 [79] is a highly integrated SoC based solution that
Table 4
Comparison of overhead lines/cables used for PLC-based applications for xed indoor/outdoor and overhead network installations.
tional area quency range type
time
1. 100 m 11.9 IS 7098 (Part 2) 3.333 Power Greece [39]

(1 kHz 1 MHz) distribution
XLPE
[39]
2. 20 km 150 IEC 61089 1120 (395 kHz) Power Greece [53]
distribution
ACSR
[240]
3. 7.46 m 70 NBN IEC 502 0.61 (224 MHz) Power China [156]
NAD distribution
XVB-F2 [241]
4. (i) 15 m (i) 35 (i) DIN VDE 0.61 (130 MHz) AMR Thailand
NYY 0276603 applications [244]
[242]
(ii) 175 m (ii) 120 (ii) IEC 60502
NYY
[243]
5. 11 m 6 CEI-UNEL 0.61 Household Italy [246]
35375 (500 kHz 30 MHz) applications
FG70R
[245]
6. 330 m 2.5 IS 6941990 0.61 (130 MHz) Lab Singapore
experiment [247]
PVC
[247]
7. 30130 m 2.5 IEC 446 STN 0.61 (10490 kHz) Lab Czech Re-
experiment public [249]
CYKY
[248]
8. 40 m 240 GB12706 8.710 Power China [251]
(40 kHz 1.5 MHz) distribution
YJLV
[250]
9. 1.54 TP-KK-133-01 0.61 Household Czech Re-
(10 kHz 10 MHz) applications public [253]
CYKY
time
[252]
10. 0.25 m 2.5 227 IEC02(RV) 0.40.7 (130 MHz) Lab France [255]
experiment
RVV3G
[254]
11. 110 m 5 MIL-C17D 0.30.5 ( Up to Lab Tanzania
100 MHz) experiment [257]
RG58BU
[256]
12. 1.57.6 m 1.252 JIS C3306 0.30.5 (240 MHz) Lab South Korea
experiment [259]
VCTFK
[258]
13. 1.5 m 2.5 DIN VDE 0250 0.20.4 Household Greece [262]
(50 Hz 30 MHz) applications
(i) NYIF
[260]
(ii)
NYM [261]
14. 4m 1.62 TIS 112531 0.20.7 Household Japan [263]
(300 kHz 30 MHz) applications
VVF
[263]
15. 10 m 3 IEC 60228 0.61 (430 MHz) Lab France [265]
12 experiment
AWG[264]
16. 15 m 3 km 25185 EIC 60332 3 0.40.7 (25200 kHz) Lab Italy [267]
experiment
RG7H1R[266]
17. 50 m 11.4 DIN VDE 0350 0.30.5 ( Up to Lab Czech Re-
20 MHz) experiment public [269]
NYM-J
[268]
18. (i) 240 m (i) 240 (i) ICEA S-94 1120 (3148.5 kHz) Power Italy [273]
649 distribution
(i) EPR
[270]
(ii) 310 m (ii) 240 (ii) NS129
(ii) PI
[271]
(iii) 2 km (iii) 150 (iii) IEC
61089
(iii)
time
ACSR[240]
(iv) 2.52 km (iv) 185 (iv) IEC
61089
(iv) AAC
[272]
19. 300 m 3.3 km 400 IEC 8.715 (70132 kHz) Power China [275]
60332 2000 distribution
YJV
[274]
20. 1 km 16 ICEA S-95658 2 (50150 kHz) Power Italy [277]
distribution
CC (3
wire) [276]
21. 612 km 35 GJB9001B- 0.61 (4289 kHz) Power USA [278]
2009 distribution
YJV
[278]
22. 100 km (i) 5.9 (i) SCAC 0.61 ( Up to 100 kHz) Lab Australia
(ES0006) experiment [282]
(i) SCAC
[279]
(ii) 124 (ii) IEC 60227
(ii)AAC
[280]
(iii) 95 (iii) IEC 228
(iii)
ABC [281]
23. 1 km (i) 185 (i) IEC 61089 0.30.5 (10 Power India [283]
148.5 kHz) distribution
(i) ACSR [240]

(ii) 5 (ii) MIL-C17D
(ii)
RG58BU [256]
combines a complete PLC modem including AFE, PHY, MAC and recongurable communication link, which is able to adapt the
upper layers up to and including IPv6 protocol to offer entire si- sub-network topology to react to the time variability of the power-
licon requirements in one chip. The EV8080 offers multi-mode line channel [80]. STarGRID is the rst industrial SoC with full
modulation supporting advanced OFDM line coding with pro- PRIME compliant platform from STMicroelectronics. The platform
prietary algorithms to enable robust data transmission over is suitable for large scale industrial PRIME system implementation,
power-line networks. It also supports FSK and spread spectrum have unique advantages in terms of system cost, power con-
line coding to support legacy applications in existing power-line sumption and exibility and its performance during several la-
networks. boratory and eld proven tests.
The PRIME MAC layer has been designed to offer a Plug & Play, ASM221 [81] is a recently launched programmable and
Table 5
Software tools for PLC-based xed-indoor/outdoor underground cables and overhead lines behavior analysis.
Software PLC type / Frequency range Purposes
COOJA network simulator [59] BB-PLC (-) Investigate latency, success rate and control trafc of partly meshed MV lines
NS-3 simulator [233] NB-PLC (Up to 500 kHz) Channel transfer function and noise power spectral density computation
MATLABs [284,285] (i) BB-PLC (100 kHz 100 MHz) (i) Radiation and resistive attenuation analysis of single-wire-earth-return (SWER) lines
(ii) NB-PLC/BB-PLC (10 kHz 50 MHz) (ii) PLC-based bus-bar behavior analysis
ATP/EMTP [286] BB-PLC (130 MHz) Modeling of underground cables, overhead MV/LV lines and MV/LV transformer
Multields [287] BB-PLC (-) Analyzes complex electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues of HV lines
WITS [288] BB-PLC (30 kHz 100 MHz) Analyzes high speed in-home power-lines
FTW PLC simulator [289] BB-PLC (Up to 100 MHz) In-home single phase PLC cables analysis
BMAE [290] BB-PLC (-) The attenuation speed estimation/prediction of in-home cables
SPICE simulator [291] BB-PLC (150 MHz) For in-home cables temporal variations of noise and channel analysis
G.hn network simulator [292] BB-PLC (125 MHz) Accurate physical layer and channel modeling of open system interconnection (OSI) model
CAD circuit simulator [293] BB-PLC (130 MHz) Simulate in-home cables, apparatuses and load terminations
Gatorbytes [294] BB-PLC (-) PLC channel throughput and accuracy measurement tool
Table 6
Comparison of varying distance with attenuation of PLC based transmission/distribution analysis.
Distance covered Frequency range Attenuation (dB) Modulation type Distribution type Mode of operation Country
Real time Simulation
8 km 10500 kHz 25 QPSK, 8PSK MV to MV USA [61]

MV to LV
15 km 35.990.6 kHz o 15 QPSK, 8PSK MV to LV Australia [62]
10 km 250500 Hz QPSK MV Turkey [63]
250 m2.5 km 50150 kHz 1540 FSK MV to LV Italy [92]

LV to MV
(i) 1.55 km (i) 150480 kHz 25 BPSK (i) MV to LV USA [107]
(ii) 8 km (ii) 35150 kHz (ii) LV to MV
25 m 29 MHz 71.7 DBPSK, DQPSK LV Japan [213]
200 m6.43 km 84 kHz 3040 DBPSK, DQPSK, ROBOUST LV to LV France [217]

MV to MV
MV to LV
LV to MV
500 m (i) 230320 kHz (i) 10 NBPLC (i) LV to MV Taiwan [223]

(ii) 140285 kHz (ii) 1520 (ii) MV to LV
4 km 10 kHz1 MHz 20 MV Netherlands [229]
3.22 km 40400 kHz 22 MV China [251]
2.522.83 km 50110 kHz 20 MV Italy [273]
1 km 50150 kHz 15 FSK MV to LV Italy [277]

LV to MV
50350 m 50500 kHz 2070 LV China [295]
- 72 kHz 70 FSK LV Singapore [296]
6 m 1 km 50200 kHz 548 FSK LV Turkey [297]
14 m 10 kHz20 MHz 28 LV Japan [298]
15 m 4 km 84.6 kHz 2225 FSK MV Italy [299]
12 km 86 kHz 225 FSK MV Italy [300]
rmware-upgradeable SaoC platform that integrates different NB- aerospace, automotive, industrial and voice and video streaming).
PLC standards such as PRIME, IEC61334-5-1,G3-PLC,METERS AND For smart HAN clients and building automation applications, CO-
MOREs, P1901.2,and also supports high accuracy metrology ap- DICO designed PLC-Stamp 1 the HomePlug GP module [84]. The
plications like EN50470-1, EN50470-3, IEC62053-2x compliant HomePlug GP module supports data rates of up to 5.7 Mbps within
class 1/0.5/0.2 measurement with necessary security features in a 300 m distance. XPLC23 [85], is 0.13 mm CMOS technology based
single chip. PLC transceiver, which supports data rates up to 24 Mbps. Based
The SIG60 transceiver can also be termed as second generation on data transfer speed PLC transceivers can also be classied in
PLC transceiver for digital communication over battery operated two ways:
power-lines. It allows the power-line to be employed for both
power and communication, thus eliminating the need for special Low/medium speed PLC transceivers
wires for carrying control and data signals [82]. For network High-speed PLC transceivers
communication between electronic modules sharing a common
DC/AC power-lines, DCB1M PLC transceiver can support multiplex 5.1. Low/medium speed PLC transceivers
communication over DC power-line, with selectable communica-
tion rates (i.e. 450 Kbps1.3 Mbps) for more than 20 m [83]. It The XM10 (2120 kHz) is X-10 protocol based PLC transceiver
avoids complex cabling, saves weight, simplies installation and that plugs into AC outlet and connects to the controller via a
increases reliability and can be benecial to many applications (i.e. modular RJ 11 telephone jack. Alternatively, the XM10 transceiver
Fig. 16. Cross-phase coupling of PLC signals [68].
Fig. 17. Bus impedance is a function of paralleled poly-phase lines [68].
Fig. 18. Bus impedance bridges PLC signals across phases [68].
may be tted inside the controller cabinet, connected to the 230 V systems, the C-band with a maximum level of 116 dB (V) is the
AC supply before the power transformer. To transmit X-10 signals, best choice, because a media access protocol is required. Ad-
the transceiver must supply 1 ms delay to the transmitter input of ditionally, the EN 50065-1 denes noise levels for all frequency
the interface with respect to common wire [86]. bands, mandatory for any electrical appliance connected to the
During late 1990s in Europe, energy utilities set out to use PLC mains in Europe. Thus, the potential parasitic inuence by dis-
technology in the AMR systems, which now have turned into the turbances is decreased to a minimum. The CENELEC specication
dominant smart metering communications. Earlier AMR systems EN50065-1 regulates no modulation or coding schemes. This is
used simple and antiquated modulation techniques such as am- stated by the Konnex specication and also abbreviated as PL132,
plitude modulation (AM), amplitude shift keying (ASK), frequency for the carrier frequency (132.5 kHz, CENELEC-C band). During
shift keying (FSK), binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and binary 1994, ST Microelectronics designed ST7537HS1, the Konnex com-
frequency shift keying (B-FSK) based PLC transceivers [87]. FSK pliant PLC transceiver offers a transfer rate of maximum 2.4 Kbps
transceiver is more reliable up to 125 kHz frequency based PLC speed [90]. They are generally termed as rst generation PLC
applications [88]. For CENELEC four bands specications (9 transceivers, which uses single carrier or dual carrier technologies
148.5 kHz), a maximum output level is required by EN50065-1 for with limited data rates up to 4.8 Kbps speed [91]. ST 7540, PLC
the signal transmission via power-line [89]. For home-network transceiver as per CENELEC EN 50065-1 standard A-band (50
Fig. 19. PLC transceiver for smart grid applications.
150 kHz), is able to monitor oil-lled MV-LV power-transformer in Fig. 20, is an increasingly popular, standardized application
behavior [92]. Echelon PLC transceivers with data rate of 5.4 Kbps protocol for communication between utilities and consumers.
are suitable for HANs, BANs and industrial applications [93,94]. Presently DLMS has become the worldwide standard of choice
During 1992 , the CEBus standard also known as EIA-600, was among SM designers for interoperability among metering systems,
developed on the foundation of an infrared (IR) protocol by Gen- including most energy types (electricity, gas, heat and water),
eral Electric [95]. The CEBus protocol provides separate PHY layer multiple applications (residential, transmission and distribution),
specication documents for communication through power-lines numerous communication media and secure data access, with
and wireless devices. The Intellon Corporation manufactured, SSC advanced encryption standard (AES)-128 encryption scheme [103].
P300, the typical CEBus compliant PLC transceiver uses a carrier Microchip has partnered with Kalki Communication Technologies
sense multiple access/collision detection and resolution (CSMA/ Ltd. (Kalkitech) and are offering the DLMS library for 16-bit PICs
CDCR) protocol to avoid data collisions. The CEBus standard microcontroller units (MCUs) and dsPICs (digital signal con-
compliant PLC transceiver transfer data packets at 10 Kbps speed trollers) DSCs. To comply with DLMS/COSEM standard, Andrea
for LV networking applications [96]. Informatique (AI) and ST Microelectronics have launched STM32
Day-dependent timings do not affect latency and throughput series MCUs and STarGRID devices [20]. For smart metering mar-
testing of AMR systems/applications [97]; but, are very important kets, the DLMS/COSEM stack is easily adaptable and also best t
during Echelon's LonWorks platform based control networking with PLC transceivers (ST7570, ST7580, ST7590) and MCUs
applications (i.e. building, industrial, transportation, and home (STM32s or SPEArs). Techno-economic benets and applications
automation markets) [94]. During 2003, dispersed tone power-line of low/medium speed PLC transceivers are given in Table 7.
communication (DTPLC) modem within 138414 kHz frequency
band came into existence to realize home energy management 5.2. High-speed PLC transceivers
system (HEMS), networked appliances with control/monitor cap-
abilities. DTPLC technology with data transfer rate up to 24.4 Kbps, An OFDM technology has a high spectral efciency, where each
uses different dispersed tones to transmit baseband data and se- channel can vary based on the noise conditions of that particular
lects frequencies which rejects line noise and high attenuation of channel and dynamically change over time, as the conditions
signal. DTPLC technology avoids narrow-band noise and co-exists change, as shown in Fig. 21a. The OFDM technology helps to re-
with conventional NB-PLC technologies [98]. Differential binary duce the amount of crosstalk in signal transmissions, and can ef-
phase shift keying (DPSK) modulation scheme is useful for AMR ciently overcome interference and frequency-selective fading
systems and has following advantages: caused by multipath propagation. OFDM based NB-PLC transceiver
(frequency between 140478 kHz, with data rate up to 116 Kbps)
Immune to PLC noise and phase variations over signal path [99]. integration with optical ber forms the hybrid communication
Good for transmitting alphabet size characters [100]. system for transformer management system (TMS) [8]. Semitech
Reduces the inuence of timing synchronization error to bit- Semiconductor introduced SM2200, an orthogonal frequency di-
error-rate (BER) performance as compared to BPSK modulation vision multiple access (OFDMA) scheme based PLC transceiver IC,
[101]. which employs multiple closely spaced sub-carriers, but the sub-
carriers are divided into groups of sub-carriers. Each group is
Device language message specication/companion specica- named a sub-channel. The sub-carriers form a sub-channel need
tion for energy metering (DLMS/COSEM) standard [102], as shown not be adjacent, as shown in Fig. 21b. The technology is frequency
Fig. 20. Architecture of DLMS/COSEM standard/protocol [102].
agile and adapts to the noisy environment of an electrical power- compliant transceiver using DB8PSK modulation provides, which
line and chooses the most effective transmission frequency. The provides data rate is up to 300 Kbps for the FCC band. When
OFDMA technology based PLC transceiver IC transmits data at 175 communicating through power-line transformers or over long
Kbps rate maximum and their performance has been tested and distances, the SNR is reduced due to attenuation. Then MAX2992
successfully deployed in over 4000 nodes in China during 2009 automatically switches to DQPSK modulation with a typical data
[105]. rates up to 150 Kbps [106].
DCSK modulation technology is well-known for its extreme Yamar Electronics invented differential quadrature phase shift
robustness and belongs to the family of spread-spectrum (SS) keying (DQPSK) modulation technology based PLC transceiver,
modulation technologies and has been deployed in many ad- DCB500 with exible protocol allows data rate up to 500 Kbps for
vanced metering management (AMM) installations [64]. Currently various applications (i.e. transferring data/voice, MPEG-4 part-10
DCSK modulation technology offers interoperable solution with format les and mp3 format les) between modules sharing a
existing PHY layer and Data Link Layers (DLL) uniquely available common DC power-line [108].
from two semiconductor vendors, Yitran Communications and After successful implementation of OFDM technology in BB-PLC
Renesas Technology. In October 2008, DCSK modulation technol- transceivers, and are also in practices for PRIME standard based
ogy based Renesas solutions achieved communications speeds of PLC transceivers. The PRIME standard dened the PLC transceiver
up to 150 Kbps in FCC bands and up to 60 Kbps speed for CENELEC with following standard layers viz.: PHY, MAC and logical link
A band. The technology is also compliant with different CENELEC, control (LLC) layer. The PHY layer manages all mechanisms related
FCC and ARIB with backward compatibility to ensure interoper- with the signal modulation, whereas the other two layers take care
ability with established installations. Street-lighting in various of the correct way of using the channel, implementing some
forms (i.e. roadway-lighting, tunnel-lighting, car park-lighting, functions related with logical connections. PRIME standard based
urban-lighting and runway-lighting) are a major consumer of PLC transceivers are possible with data throughput up to 576 Kbps
electricity. During 2012, all outdoor lighting power consumption for automatic metering infrastructure (AMI) and supervisory
was estimated to comprise 19% of worldwide electricity usage control and data acquisition (SCADA) and phase measurement
[106]. The savings with G3-PLC based PLC solutions are seen in units (PMUs) based applications [109]. DLC-3 is also considered as
reduced energy usage and operational costs, which can be sub- fourth generation NB-PLC chip, which uses the multicarrier OFDM
stantial. Tunnel-lighting control system (TLACS) is currently used transmission scheme and supports data rates up to 576 Kbps [110].
for tunnel-lighting by Nyx Hemera Technologies is delivering en- This chip is specially designed to support PRIME, G3-PLC, ITU-T G.
ergy savings of 25% for uorescent-lighting and reducing main- hnem and IEEEP1901.2 standards.
tenance cost by 30%. It greatly improves safety by matching the AMI networks data transmissions over power-lines are nega-
illumination level to the outside at the entrance and exit of tun- tively impacted because of many electrical appliances connected
nels, as shown in Fig. 22. The addressability and high data rates of to these lines. Other factors, which inuence the performance of
Maxim's solution enable Nyx Hemera Technologies to support up PLC network, are different types of noise and attenuation, data
to 1022 lights within a single system. The TLACS system supports throughput, various cable types and their topologies, modulation
wire lengths up to 3 km, and since it uses the power-line, which is techniques and varying distance between the transmitters and
modular and easily installable on existing lighting systems. The receivers. As TWACS [7] systems used earlier for UNB-PLC based
capacity and performance of a street-lighting network can be de- solutions, and today is the industry's proven PLC technology for
termined and monitored with the help of power-line topologies, networking millions of AMI end-points at over 300 utilities [111].
including the number and location of transformers, the frequency Aclara's next generation enhanced Two-Way Automatic Commu-
band selected, and their message frequencies. For street-light au- nications System (eTWACS), compatible with current TWACS sys-
tomation, as shown in Fig. 23, the MAX2992 [107] is a G3-PLC- tems, eliminating stranded assets and providing a manageable
724
Table 7
Techno-economic benets and applications of low/medium speed PLC transceivers.
Part number/Package Max. bit Interface type PLC standard/Modulation Embedded standard proto- Operating vol- Operating tempera- Applications Average unit
type rate (Kbps) type/Operating col stack tage (V) ture (Industrial) price in ($USD)
frequency
ST7580 [60] 28.8 UART N-PSK CENELEC, FCC part15, ARIB 3.35 40 C to 85 C Smart metering applications, street lighting control, $11.30
(VFQFPN-48) command and control networking applications
ST7537HS1 [90] 2.4 RS-232 Half duplex (FSK) (Up EN50065-1, FCC part 15 10 Up to 70 C As per EN50065-1, FCC part 15 based PLC applications
(PLCC-28) to132.45 kHz)
ST7538Q [91] (TQFP- 4.8 SPI, UART Half duplex (FSK) EN50065-1, FCC part 15 7.512.5 40 C to 85 C As per EN50065-1, FCC part 15 based PLC applications $6.88
44)
ST7540 [92] 4.8 SPI, UART FSK EN50065-1, FCC part 15 3.35 40 C to 85 C AMR and automatic meter management (AMM), street $8.20
(HTSSOP-28) lighting control, loads management and home/building
K. Sharma, L.M. Saini / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 67 (2017) 704751
automation applications
PL3150 [93] (LQFP- 5.4 SPI, UART BPSK EN50065-1, FCC part 15, 8.518 40 C to 85 C Appliances, audio/video, lighting, heating/cooling, se-
64) CENELEC A band, CENELEC C curity, metering, irrigation applications
band, ARIB
PL3120 [94] (TSSOP- 5.4 SPI, UART BPSK EN50065-1,FCC part 15, 8.518 40 C to 85 C Appliances, audio/video, lighting, heating/cooling, se-
38) CENELEC A band, CENELEC C curity, metering, irrigation applications
band, ARIB
SSC P300 [96] (SOIC- 10 SPI SSCM (50200 kHz) EIA-600 (CEBuss Standard) 5 40 C to 85 C Serves as the basic communications element in a vari-
20) ety of CEBuss Standard compatible products and
applications
ATL90115-1 [97] (-) 0.3 TTL, RS-232 DSSS (Up to 115 kHz) EN50065-1, FCC part 15 5 40 C to 85 C Home automation, lighting control, HVAC control, low- $39.87
speed data networks, AMR, signs and information dis-
play applications
KQ130K [181] (Un- 9.6 TTL, RS-232 - (120135 kHz) 5 25 C to 70 C Renewable energy based applications (i.e. fault diag-
coated SIP-9) nosis of photovoltaic panels)
TDA5051A [210] 1.2 RS-232 ASK (Up to 132.5 kHz) EN50065-1, FCC part 15 5 50 C to 100 C Home appliance control (air-conditioning, shutters, $4.62
(SOP-16) lighting, and alarms), energy/heating control, ampli-
tude shift keying (ASK) data transmission using the
home power network applications
ST7536 [301] (PLCC- 1.17 TTL, RS-232 Half duplex (FSK) DH028/29 ENEL, EN50065-1 5 25 C to 70 C As per DH028/29 ENEL, EN50065-1 CENELEC, FCC part
28) CENELEC, FCC part 15 15 based PLC applications
PL3201[302] (LQFP- 1 UART QPSK (Up to 120 kHz) 5 40 C to 85 C Can be directly used for AMR applications without any $88.94
100) modications in the energy/smart meter
MTC-30585 [303] 1.2 RS-232, UART S-FSK IEC 1334-5-1, IEC1334-4-32 3 40 C125 C As per IEC 1334-5-1, IEC1334-4-32 based PLC applica-
(PLCC-28) tions (Electricity gas, water and heat and utility supplier
applications)
ST7570 [304] (VQFN- 2.4 UART S-FSK IEC 61334-5-1, EN50065-1, 3.35 40 C to 85 C As per IEC 61334-5-1, EN50065-1, FCC part 15 based $10.53
48) FCC part 15 AMR applications
LME2200C [305] 2.4 RS-232 MCM (9150 kHz) 3.3 40 C to 85 C AMR, home automation and intelligent control, data
(SOP-28) transmission and reception over power-lines
AMIS-49587 [306] 2.8 SCI S-FSK IEC 61334-5-1, EN50065-1 3.3 40 C to 85 C AMR, remote security control, streetlight control, $5.55
(PLCC-28,QFN-52) transmission of alerts (re, gas leakage, water leakage)
NCN49597 [307] 4.8 UART S-FSK CENELEC EN 50065-1, EN 3.3 40 C to 125 C AMR, remote security control, streetlight control, $7.74
(QFN-52) 50065-7 transmission of alerts (re, gas leakage, water leakage)
PLT-22 [308] (Un- 5 SPI, UART Dual carrier frequency EN50065-1, FCC part 15, 3.37 40 C to 85 C As per EN50065-1, FCC part 15, CENELEC, ARIB, EIA-
coated SIP-21) BPSK (110140 kHz) CENELEC, ARIB, EIA-709.2 709.2 standard based home automation applications
URQ-1120 [309] (Un- 9.6 TTL, RS-232 - (120135 kHz) 5 25 C to 70 C Industrial control, railway, intelligent, smart home,
coated SIP-9) building control and useful for carrier data transfer
applications
ST75MM [310] 4.8 UART QPSK, 8PSK CENELEC, FCC part 15, ARIB 3.35 40 C to 85 C As per CENELEC, FCC part 15, ARIB based smart meter-
(VFQFPN-48) ing applications
ATPL250A [311] SPI G3-PLC CENELEC-A, FCC part 15, 3.3 10 C to 85 C Smart meters, data-concentrators, lighting, industrial/ $11.50
(LQFP-80) ARIB, ITU-T G.9903 home automation, home/building energy management
systems, solar energy and plug-in hybrid electric ve-
hicle (PHEV) charging stations
migration path which enables utilities to read every single meter

on your network in the same time it used to take the read a single
feeder. This technology offers utilities powerful tools for billing
$29.00
$12.26
and consumer engagement, load control, new demand response
applications, and overall power line condition and outages de-

tection facility. With iiDEASs (Intelligent Infrastructure: Data, Ef-

clocks/sensors, AMR, load shedding, remote diagnostic,
home/ building automation, lighting and HVAC control
Home automation, AMR and advanced meter manage-

Energy management, automatic and remote metering,
ciency, Analytics and Services) technology consumers can effec-

Home/industrial automation, control systems, smart
metering, intelligent lighting, smart appliances and
Lighting systems, HVAC systems, security systems,
tively manage multiple utility systems, including AMI networks,

other machine-to-machine (M2M) applications
through a web browser or mobile devices.

street-light monitoring, trafc-light controls
The INT5200 integrated power-line MAC/PHY layer based

ment (AMM), street lighting applications
transceiver is the world's rst complete HomePlug 1.0 standard

solution on a chip [112]. The INT5200 implements Intellon's pa-
tented PowerPacket OFDM based technology, which forms the
basis for the HomePlug 1.0 standard specication. Specically
tailored to reliably deliver data rates up to 14 Mbps over the dif-
cult power-line communication environment, the IC also com-
bats deep attenuation notches, noise sources, and multi-path
fading by allocating usable frequencies according to SNR. Syn-
applications
chronization is achieved in low SNR channels without the use of

pilot carriers.
The MAX2981 within frequency band (4.4920.7 MHz), is in-
dustry's rst automotive/industrial-grade AFE plus line-driver IC
that delivers high performance at low cost [113]. This highly in-
40 C to 125 C
40 C to 125 C
tegrated design combines an analog-to-digital converter (ADC),

40 C to 85 C
40 C to 85 C
digital-to-analog converter (DAC), adaptive gain control (AGC),

lters, and line-driver on a single chip. The MAX2981 substantially
reduces previously required system components and complies
with all HomePlug 1.0 standard compliant digital ICs at PHY layer.
In China during LV distribution networks conguration, it has
been proven that frequency range of 210 MHz is suitable for high-
speed data access system of power-line. Reliable communication
from distribution-transformer to each user within frequency range
from 2 to 20 MHz across multi-layer buildings, with the help of
3.6
3.3
3.3
3.6
repeaters is possible [114]. PLC technology is spurious to radiation

CENELEC C-band, EN50065-
CENELEC C-band, EN50065-

CENELEC, FCC part 15, ARIB
facilities themselves which can strongly affect radio communica-

tions. Second generation BB-PLC transceivers (1.634 MHz) with
EN50065-1, 2, 3, 7,
proper ltering applications were normally operated for amateur

Protocol neutrality
radio services [115]. In Switzerland, the Federal Ofce of Com-

munications (OFCOM) engineers found that the PLC emissions for
frequencies below 10 MHz were below ambient levels inside the
city. For frequencies higher than 10 MHz, the PLC system rose
above ambient levels. Wireless emissions from the Fribourg BB-
1
PLC systems were strong enough to violate the German NB30

standard [116]. To avoid PLC emissions in Swiss cities, as shown in
FSK ( Up to 132.5 kHz)
FSK ( Up to 132.5 kHz)
Fig. 24, following two steps were followed and which can be de-
scribed below:
Supplier seeks the source of the disturbance and the lter fre-
quency bands within 100 m of the victim disturbed.
N-FSK
DCSK
If other disruptors are found within the limit of 100 m, they are
connected to the same line and they cut the circle, they should
also be ltered in the frequency bands.
Parallel, SPI
SPI, UART
I2C, UART
UART, I2C
Till date there is no specied European Harmonized Standard

for PLC above 148.5 kHz frequency range [117], and PLC based
device/instrument developers are free to choose their own pro-
28.8 Kbps
cedures and methods for assessment. devolo with University of

Duisburg-Essen developed a proposal for 150500 kHz, derived
ATPL00B [313] (LQFP- 4.8
4.8
7.5
from the present discussions in CENELEC concerning in-house PLC

applications between 1.630 MHz. The relation between con-
PLM-1 [315] (LQFP-
IT700 [312] (QFPN-
ducted and radiated signals carefully examined with radiated

ATPL100A [314]
measurements in lab, as shown in Fig. 25 and during eld trials at

(LQFP-144)
various locations in Vattenfall's power grid, as shown in Fig. 26.

devolo compared the Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test-
144)
56)
44)
results within German SchuTSEV limits, as shown in Fig. 27, to

guarantee higher protection of safety relevant frequencies at
Fig. 21. Basic phenomenon of OFDM and OFDA technologies (a) OFDM technology (b) OFDMA technology [104].
BlueChip PLC, [118] is the world's rst fully IEEE1901 standard

compliant single chip HD-PLC transceiver IC, as shown in Fig. 29. It
provides the smallest form factor, highest performance and lowest
power of any commercially available PLC solution. This HD-PLC IC
reliably delivers robust communications with data rate up to 240
Mbps, superb noise immunity, and high quality of service (QoS)
over both AC/DC power-lines and has been optimized for various
applications (i.e. multimedia distribution, surveillance camera,
home networking, IPTVs, smart energy management, SMs, BEMS
Fig. 22. Scheme for PLC technology. In a tunnel-lighting control system (TLACS)
networking, network extension and distribution). Techno-eco-
system from Nyx Hemera Technologies, a local controller integrates PLC to com-
municate with the network controller over the AC line and controls each lamp nomic benets and applications of high-speed PLC transceivers are
using the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) interface [106]. given in Table 8.
national level. Hence devolo's G3-PLC based products have Con-

formite Europeenne (CE) mark. 6. PLC data-concentrators and hybrid data-concentrators
The PHY layer of HPAV transceiver operates in the frequency analysis
range of 228 MHz and provides a 200 Mbps PHY for channel rate
and up to 150 Mbps speed for information rate, as shown in The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in U.S. permits
Fig. 28. It uses windowed OFDM technique and a powerful turbo frequencies from 9-500 kHz for PLC based applications. FCC's rules
convolutional code (TCC), which provides robust performance and regulations limit the transmit signal within band and the
within 0.5 dB of Shannon's channel capacity. Windowed OFDM signal losses in such a way that during real limitation, the com-
technique provides exible spectrum notching capability where munication modems need to embed with SMs during smart me-
the notches can exceed 30 dB in depth without losing signicant tering network. In Europe and China, each distribution-transfor-
useful spectrum outside of the notch. Long OFDM symbols with mer can support 10100 houses/apartments, but back in the U.S.
917 usable carriers (tones) are used in conjunction with a exible and in Japan, each distribution-transformer supports limited
guard interval. Modulation densities from BPSK (which carries houses, especially in rural/remote areas, as shown in Fig. 30. A
1 bit of information per carrier per symbol) to 1024-QAM (which modem installation with every SM also increases the infra-
carries 10 bits of information per carrier per symbol) are in- structure costs. Therefore to minimize the additional costs, and
dependently applied to each carrier based on the channel char- maintain signal levels to establish communication between SMs
acteristics between the transmitter and the receiver. on LV line to cross every distribution-transformer on MV lines, the
Fig. 23. A typical automated street-light network topology [106].

Fig. 24. Representation of a disturbed area (amateur) in a radius of 100 m in the city of Switzerland [115].
data concentrator is becoming the optimal solution to deliver the

data rates and robustness required by SMs installed in homes and
placed in substations [92]. Although the AMI networks are being
rolled out by worldwide electric utilities, the last inch connectivity
continues to haunt the efciency as well as the rollout programs in
many countries. The widely adopted hybrid (i.e. wire-less and
wired) communication technologies deployed in AMI projects in-
volve various schemes for last mile connection from a single data-
concentrator to a group of SMs. With latest private-key encryption
schemes, the data-concentrator securely collects consumer in-
formation from HANs/BANs, covers neighbor-hood area networks
(NANs) and transmit the data to the utilities severs on the wide
area networks (WANs) [5]. Normally PLC based data-concentrator
supports distance up to 200 m [87]. But the Beacon 3100 from
Fig. 25. Evaluation of resulting radiation at University of Duisburg-Essen [117].
Elster's [120], as shown in Fig. 31, is new hybrid data collection
Fig. 26. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) measurements at Vattenfall's power grid different locations (a) EMC measurements beside an installation (b) EMC mea-
surements in the cellar beside the meter (c) EMC measurements in a substation [117].
Fig. 29. Architecture of HD-PLC standard based PLC transceiver IC [118].
Fig. 27. Devolo's electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test-results at various dis-

tances in Germany [117]. GPRS connectivity in multiple product options and provides meter
reading scalability distance up to 1000 m. The DC450 [124], as
platform with EAL6 certied hardware security feature, which shown in Fig. 33, is a smart data-concentrator for Landis Gyr's
implements a family of high-end communication devices for eld Gridstreams AIM metering system. The DC450 communicates
deployable SG applications and supports distance up to 1200 m. It with the device, which uses PLAN (IEC 62056-61) protocol on
is interoperable by having a G3-PLC Alliance compliant interface (CENELEC A-band) with 1200 and 2400 baud rate. The DC450
downstream and also with a swappable 3G/ GPRS modem or transfers messages to and from the head end system using the
standard TCP/IP protocol over Ethernet or with its pluggable 2G
Ethernet connection for upstream communication purposes.
modem and offers statistics and monitoring functions to enable
When data-concentrator signal strength/quality is high as
the comprehensive analysis of metering network [125]. With a G3-
compared to SM signals, then consumer data weakens/misses and
PLC, the DC450 acts as the personal area network (PAN) co-
does not reach its destination. During PRIME based SMI networks
ordinator [126], and now more information is available to help for
[121], a separate line detection device (LDN) installation with ev-
metering network maintenance and troubleshooting purpose.
ery transformer nodes, is helpful to maintain the data quality and New devices actively search for a PAN coordinator by sending
reliability. As per PRIME specications, the CURRENTs connected beacon requests. MAC address serves as unique device identica-
intelligence portfolio [122], gives utilities the freedom to choose tion, as derived from the Ethernet. Based on a pre-dened key, the
meters and data-concentrators from various vendors and also DC450 decide whether a dedicated device is allowed to join the
avoids proprietary solutions from single source. CURRENTs in- network/topology or not. The G3-PLC metering network topology
telligent data-concentrator [123], as shown in Fig. 32, offers a [125], as shown in Fig. 34, conrms that G3-PLC also helps to make
combination of meter data collection, LV supervisory functions, network troubleshooting more efcient. Embodied with EN 61334
Fig. 28. Block diagram of HPAV standard based PLC transceiver [35].
Table 8
Techno-economic benets and applications of high-speed PLC transceivers.
Part number/ Max. bit Interface type PLC standard/Modula- Embedded standard Operating Operating Applications Average
Package type rate tion type/Operating protocol stack voltage temperature per unit
(Kbps/ frequency (V) (Industrial) price in
Mbps) ($USD)
DLC-1000 [74] 107 Kbps RS-232 OFDM (438 kHz) EN 50065, IEC 61000-3, As per EN 50065, IEC 61000-3, FCC part 15 subpart B based PLC
(-) FCC part 15 subpart B applications
2
ST7590 [80] 128.6 I C, SPI, UART PRIME (4289 kHz) EN50065-1 FCC part 15, 3.35 40 C to PRIME compliant smart metering and smart grid applications $7.75
(QFN-48, Kbps IEC 61334-4-32 105 C
TQFP-100)
SIG60 [82] 115.2 UART - (Up to 13 MHz) ISO/IEC 13239 3.3 40 C to Consumer electronics internal network, avionics sensors-actuators $7.45
(QFN-28) Kbps 85 C bus, transmit UART or LIN over the power-line, vehicle control-doors,
seats, mirrors, lights electrical vehicle battery management system
(BMS) applications
XPLC23 [85] 24 Mbps GPIO, SPI, UART DMT 1.23.3 40 C to Broadband internet access system, home networking, Voice over
(TQFP-100) 85 C Powerline (VOPL), home/building automation applications
SM2200 [105] 175 Kbps SPI OFDMA CENELEC 3.3 40 C to AMR, street-lighting control, smart energy home area networking,
(LQFP-48, 85 C home/building automation applications
TQFP-48)
MAX2992 300 Kbps SPI, UART G3-PLC (10490 kHz) IEEE P1901.2, ITU G. 3.3 40 C to Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), data-concentrators, building $16.52
[107] (LQFP- hnem G.9955, ITU 105 C automation electronic vehicle charging, home energy monitoring,
64) G.9903, IEC, CENELEC, solar and renewable energy management, street lighting automation
ARIB applications
DLC-2B [109] 576 Kbps GPIO, RS-232, 8052 memory PRIME EN 50065, 1.83 40 C to Electric quality monitoring, energy management, security systems,
(QFP-64, interface IEC 61000-3, 85 C control systems, tele control, home automation applications
BGA-256) FCC part 15 subpart B
INT5200 [112] 14 Mbps USB 1.1 device interface, MII PHY OFDM with patented HomePlug 1.0 3.35 40 C to Shared broadband internet access, audio and video streaming and
(LFBGA- (IEEE 802.3 u) / GPSI interface, MII signal processing 85 C transfer, expanding the coverage of wireless LANs, Voice Over IP calls,
144) Host / DTE interface (IEEE technique PC le and application sharing, printer and peripheral sharing, net-
802.3 u) work and online gaming, security cameras
EV8000 [173] 1 Mbps I2C,SPI, UART OFDM (9490 kHz) ITU G.9903 (G3-PLC), 1.83 40 C to AMI, airport runway lighting, Internet of Things (IoT), smart appli-
(LQFP-100) ITU G.9904 (PRIME), IEC 85 C ances, solar plant control and monitoring, street-lighting networks,
61334 S-FSK substation communications, trafc signal control and monitoring
applications
88LX2718 182 QAM-4096 ITU G.hn 1.83 0 C to Ultra-high speed HD entertainment networks in- homes applications
[292] (-) Mbps 40 C
MAX2990 100 Kbps I2C,SPI, UART G3-PLC (10490 kHz) CENELEC, FCC part 15, 3.6 40 C to AMR, home automation, heating ventilation and air conditioning $17.42
[316] (LQFP- ARIB 85 C (HVAC), building automation, sensor control and data, acquisition,
64) remote monitoring and control, Voice-Over-Power-line, security sys-
tems/keyless entry applications
ADD1020 128 Kbps SPI PRIME (4288 kHz) IEC 61334-4-32, PRIME 1.83 40 C to Suitable for PRIME smart meters, PRIME data-concentrators
[317] (-) 432 85 C
ATPL230A 128.6 SPI DBPSK, DQPSK, D8PSK PRIME 3.6 40 C to PRIME standard based smart metering, industrial lighting and auto- $10.84
[318] (LQFP- Kbps 125 C mation, home automation, street-lighting, solar energy and PHEV
80) charging stations
DLC-2C [319] MCM CENELEC EN 50065, 3.3 40 C to PLC-Internet gateway, Web server, data-concentrator, communication
(QFP-144, (i) 288 UART, (i) 9149 kHz IEC61000-3, 125 C master, energy quality monitoring, automation, telecontrol system
QFP-64) Kbps applications
(ii) 576 USB, GIO (ii) 9490 kHz FCC part 15 subpart B
Kbps
LME2980 306 Kbps UART, SPI, I2C BPSK,QPSK, 16-QAM CENELEC, FCC part 15, 3.3 40 C to AMR/AMI and smart metering using PLC, home networking and smart
[320] ARIB 125 C controls, home/building energy management, medium-voltage (MV)
(LQFP-64) distribution automation using distribution lines
IT900 [321] 500 Kbps UART, SPI, I2C, JTAG DCSK turbo mode (-) CENELEC, FCC part 15, 3.3 40 C to AMR/AMI and smart metering using PLC, home networking and smart
(LQFP-100) ARIB 125 C controls, home/building energy management, Solar inverters, smart-
729
lighting, vending machine control, signage control applications
730
Part number/ Max. bit Interface type PLC standard/Modula- Embedded standard Operating Operating Applications Average
Package type rate tion type/Operating protocol stack voltage temperature per unit
(Kbps/ frequency (V) (Industrial) price in
Mbps) ($USD)
SM2400 [322] 500 Kbps SPI, UART BPSK,QPSK, 8PSK, co- CENELEC, FCC part 15 , 3.3 40 C to AMR/AMI and smart metering using PLC, home networking and smart
(LQFP-64) herent 16-QAM (5 ARIB, IEEE 1901.2, 105 C controls, home/building energy management, , home/building auto-
500 kHz) PRIME, G3-PLC, CTIA/ mation, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) applications
EIA709.2
SM2480 [323] 500 Kbps UART, JTAG, GPIO, SPI Selectable BPSK, QPSK, CENELEC, FCC part 15, 3.3 40 C to Solar micro-inverters, smart-lighting LED ballasts, home/building au-
(LQFP-128) 8PSK, coherent 16- ARIB, IEEE 1901.2, G3- 105 C tomation, SCADA, grid-connected applications
QAM PLC, PRIME, G.hnem
INT5500 [324] 85 Mbps MII 16/64/256-QAM, FCC part 15 Broadband internet access system, home networking, Voice over
(LQFP-100) DQPSK, DBPSK, RO- Powerline (VOPL), home/building automation applicaions
BOUST (-)
DSS9002 200 MII, SPI, UART, GPIO High-density OFDM HomePlug AV 3.33.6 0 C to High denition (HD) and standard denition (SD) video distribution,
[325] Mbps (234 MHz) 40 C TV over IP (IPTV), backbone for Wi-Fi, UWB and Wireless USB, higher
(PBGA-256) data rate broadband sharing, Shared broadband internet access, audio
and video streaming and transfer, expanding the coverage of wireless
LANs, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), PC les and applications
sharing, printer and peripheral sharing ,network and online gaming,
security cameras
DSS7700 200 SPI OFDM (234 MHz) Universal Powerline Al- 3.33.6 0 C to High denition (HD) and standard denition (SD) video distribution,
[326] (QFN- Mbps liance (UPA) 40 C TV over IP (IPTV), backbone for Wi-Fi, UWB and Wireless USB, higher
84) data rate broadband sharing, Shared broadband internet access, audio
and video streaming and transfer, expanding the coverage of wireless
LANs, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), PC les and applications
sharing, printer and peripheral sharing, network and online gaming,
security cameras
ST2100 [327] 200 I2C,UART, USB 2.0, JTAG, Enhanced QPSK, BPSK,QPSK, 16- HomePlug Green PHY 40 C to Smart gateway, PLC bridging, including wire-less, smart grid, electro $30.88
(TFBGA- Mbps I2S QAM, 64-QAM, 256- standard, HomePlug AV 85 C mobility, in-home audio/video distribution, video surveillance, home
373) QAM, 1024-QAM (1.8 and 1.0 standards automation, network area storage (NAS), display panels control
30 MHz) applications
STCOM [328] 500 Kbps USART, I2C, SPI - (Up to 500 kHz) CENELEC, FCC part15, 3.3 40 C to Suitable for smart metering and Internet of Things applications
(TQFP 176) ARIB, PRIME, G1, G3, 85 C
IEEE 1901.2, METERS
AND MOREs
STCOMET 500 Kbps USART, I2C, SPI - (Up to 500 kHz) CENELEC, FCC part 15, 3.3 40 C to Suitable for EN 50470-1, EN 50470-3, IEC 62053-21, IEC 62053-22 and
[329] ARIB, PRIME, G1, G3, 85 C IEC 62053-23 compliant class1, class 0.5, class 0.2 type AC smart
(TQFP-176) IEEE 1901.2, METERS metering applications
AND MOREs
SAM4SP32A 128 Kbps USB 2.0 , I2C, UART Differential BPSK, 97-carrier OFDM PRIME 3.3 40 C to Suitable for PRIME smart meters, PRIME data-concentrators
[330] QPSK, 8-PSK (42 compliant 85 C
(LQFP-128) 89 kHz)
ATPL220A 128 Kbps SPI Differential BPSK, 97-carrier OFDM PRIME 3.3 40 C to AMR and AMM based applications, street lighting, home automation
[331] QPSK, 8-PSK (42 compliant 85 C applications
(LQFP-120) 89 kHz)
ATPL210A 128 Kbps I2C, SPI, UART Differential BPSK, 97-carrier OFDM PRIME 3.3 40 C to Home/industrial automation, control systems, smart metering, in-
[332] QPSK, 8-PSK (42 compliant 85 C telligent lighting, smart appliances and other machine-to-machine
(LQFP-120) 89 kHz) (M2M) applications
Fig. 30. Grid architecture differences between (a) U.S./Japan and (b) Europe/China [119].
standard, Itron's PLCC3G data-concentrator [127], as shown in reading of domestic supply meters via GPRS technique. The var-
Fig. 35, is equipped with a Java virtual machine and perform two ious consumption values for electricity, gas, water and heat are
important functions: connected locally in the ZDUE-PLC-MUC can transmit data up to
300 MUC controllers via Renesas PLC solution (i.e. DCSK modula-
Gateway for communication between the advanced metering tion). Presently Texas Instruments data-concentrator with certied
management (AMM) information system (IS) and meters. software architectures supports all NB-PLC frequency bands (G3-
Collect and memorize the metering data and statistics of com- PLC CENELEC, ARIB and FCC), as shown in Fig. 37. The hybrid data-
munication in order to place them at the disposal of IS. concentrator consists of AFE032 [130], is an integrated AFE, which
supports transformer-coupled connections with PLC system. The
AMM information system uses the following three modes of AFE is capable for driving high-current across low-impedance lines
communication such as Ethernet, GSM/GPRS and PSTN. With (up to 1.9A) with reactive load can be directly interfaced with
2400 baud rate, PLCC3G data-concentrator supports PLAN protocol suitable DSPs or MCUs. The hybrid data-concentrator, as shown in
between PLC meters and BB-PLC devices. The ZDUE-DC-MUC data- Fig. 38, via AC power-lines during PLC based AMI networks sup-
concentrator [128], as shown in Fig. 36, from Dr. Neuhaus Tele- ports up to 2000 end nodes. ModemTecs, from Czech Republic is a
kommunikation GmbH enables multi-line wireless remote data leading research and development company in the area of SG
Fig. 31. Beacon 3100 G3-PLC data-concentrator [120].

Fig. 32. CURRENT's intelligent data-concentrator [123].
in order to maintain the balanced state.

PLC communication with e-meters and organizing their activ-
ities. Exact time sync will enable accurate pictures of electric
quantities (synchrophasors) and system can be thus effectively
controlled (created pictures could easily detect non-technical
losses).
Communication can also be realized through GPRS/EDGE,
CDMA, Ethernet,
WiMAX technology. MV PLC can be prepared.
MT54A-Compact, as shown in Fig. 40, is embodied with

programmable eld-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) system,
which supports PLC communication (i.e. D-BPSK, and multi-carrier
modulation) within 30145 kHz frequency range with data trans-
fer rate up to 400 Kbps. MT54A-Compact can also perform the
autonomous management of many processes in transformer, and
comprises local SCADA support pack for MV to LV distribution
based SG applications.
7. FPGA based PLC solutions and their behavior analysis
Nowadays, FPGA based PLC solutions (i.e. transceivers, simu-

lators and emulators) are in practice to implement NB-PLC and BB-
PLC based SG applications. As per worldwide PLC standards/cer-
Fig. 33. DC450 data-concentrator for Landis Gyr Gridstream based AIM system
[124]. tications and modulation schemes, FPGAs based solutions can be
categorize in two ways:
technologies (i.e. PLC communication, and SMs), introduced the FPGA based NB-PLC solutions
new generation data concentrator, MT54A [131]. MT54A series FPGA based BB-PLC solutions
data-concentrators [131], integrates ve kinds of devices (i.e.
e-meter, power quality meter, remote terminal unit (RTU), com- 7.1. FPGA based NB-PLC solutions
munication units, subordinate system controller) into one device,
as shown in Fig. 39, and results in signicant cost decrease from During 2002, Siemens Telecommunication Systems im-
utilities point of view. As per CENELEC EN 55065 standard, MT54A plemented M-ary bi-orthogonal keying (MBOK) based PLC trans-
series data-concentrators are already designed as per various in- ceiver on an FPGA module for control signaling and data trans-
ternational standards (i.e. IEC 61000, IEC 62056, IEC 60870, IEC mission for in-home applications. As per FCC guidelines, the
18012, IEC 61334, EN 50065, EN 13757, IEEE 802, V3C SOAP) and transceiver provides 128 Kbps speed in the frequency band from
their ve key characteristics are given below: 10-340 kHz [133]. TSMC 0.18-micron technology based proposed
PLC modem design adopts a 2-level modulation scheme consisting
Measuring of higher harmonics (at least 50th order), deformed of MBOK modulation for direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
power, ickers, etc. scheme and a FSK modulation. The modem uses a bandwidth of
RTU for remote and local manipulations with transformer sta- 400 kHz and can support data rates up to 100 Kbps [134]. In 2011,
tion and its devices a simple OFDM realization congured on FPGA board for CENELEC
Based on requirements from superior system, it participates on A-band (395 kHz) and two fundamental methodologies for
organizing of power generation, distribution, and consumption, 3-phase 230 V/50 Hz systems were developed. The proposed
Fig. 34. DC450 data-concentrator based G3-PLC network topology [125].
Fig. 35. Itron's PLCC3G data-concentrator [127].
3-phase electrical model and channel emulator [135], as shown in to 32 Kbps [138]. During LV power distribution network, PLC is a
Fig. 41, helps users to select a suitable NB-PLC solution to achieve useful for power grid tomography [139]. But the input-output
more reliable communication links and higher data rates in prac- behavior of LV power-line channels estimation for in-home high-
tice for their specic NB-PLC systems/applications. In Japan, the speed PLC applications requires the availability of proper wide-
new NB-PLC specication is termed as Lite-PLC, which supports band channel sounding tools. In fact, the properties of real world
the communication spectrum between 103.125 kHz and power-line channels are substantially different from those com-
393.75 kHz in the ARIB band [136]. Lite-PLC supports a data rate monly exhibited by their wireless counterparts, so that standard
up to 131.25 Kbps in normal mode operation and 65.625 Kbps methods for wireless channel sounding cannot be directly adapted
during robust mode operation. An OFDM transceiver using the to a power-line scenario. For this, an FPGA-based wideband
xed-point version of approximate message passing (AMP) algo- power-line channel sounder can be easily customized to consumer
rithm achieves full streaming throughput as per G3-PLC standard needs using a set of simple graphical user interfaces (GUIs) [140].
data rates and recovers impulsive noise up to 8 dB over a wide SNR
range [137]. Regarding future SG deployments in China, power 7.2. FPGA based BB-PLC solutions
quality is a very challenging issue. To overcome this, FPGA based
G3-PLC solution can promise robustness during presence of PLC During 2004, HomePlug and HomeRF standards solved the
channel issues (noise and fading) and achieves higher data rate up signal distribution problems from BB-PLC modems. Therefore,
based channel emulator [144], as shown in Fig. 42, which achieves

the largest bandwidth (up to 200 MHz) among well-known
hardware implementations. It features a high degree of versatility,
which allows up to 300 distinct taps and fully programmable dy-
namic range for signal and noise components. Comparison of FPGA
based PLC solutions (i.e. transceiver/simulator/emulator) is given
in Table 9. As per latest PLC regulations standardizations and
certications, various simulation software-tools are in practices, to
analyze in-home based network/performance analysis as given in
Table 10. PLC based AMI channel/network performance analysis
software-tools are mentioned in Table 11.
8. PLC security and privacy analysis
PLC with latest advancements and their next-generation stan-

Fig. 36. Dr. Neuhaus Telekommunikation GmbH power-line data-concentrator for dardization/certication have already proven and promising al-
meter reading transmission via embodied GPRS module [128]. ternative for high speed internet access and data networking ap-
plications. Its strengths and popularities can be attributed to its
FPGA based BB-PLC system, using the free C band (100500 kHz) ubiquitous nature and readily available infrastructure; specically,
with the help of an OFDM with 16-QAM modulation technique, for reliable active HV systems based AC/DC transmissions. Mod-
were implemented for voice and digital communications purposes emTecs developed MT-VN22 PLC module [145], as shown in
[141]. After 2010, global standardization of IEEE 1901 and their Fig. 43, is a basic model of the next-generation of HV based PLC
wide acceptance for various high-speed BB-PLC applications such modems for 35 kV and below voltages opeartions. Using single-
as in-home, access, transportation and various SG applications carrier modulation (SCM) technique, it achieves reliable commu-
attracted FPGA designers/developers to use/implement PLC PHY nication speed up to 10 Kbps. MT-VN22 PLC module can also be
layer for varios FPGA based PLC solutions (i.e.transceiver/simu- used for a wide range of communication protocols (i.e. Modbus,
lator/emulator). Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA device based PLC trans- IEC, and DLMS). MT-VN22 PLC module, which can be virtually
ceiver operates at a frequency of 107.68 MHz and supports data utilize on the RS232/RS485 interface. MT-VN22 PLC module also
rate up to 107 Mbps [142]. Testing of BB-PLC modems from past to meets the dielectric strength and impulse voltage (IEC 60060-1
present days are more challenging. Nowadays BB-PLC modems standard) as well as the relevant standards for EMC (group IEC
mostly use single-input-single-output (SISO) transmission to 61000-40). AMETEK Power Instruments provides the UPLC,
transmit/receive data across live and neutral wires. But HomePlug which works within NB-PLC (30500 kHz) carrier spectrum and
AV2.0 or ITU-T G.hn (G9963) standards allows MIMO transmis- can be applied on HV lines and extra high voltage (EHV) trans-
sions and uses the protective earth wire for additional transmis- mission lines of lengths over 300 kilo-meters [146]. The UPLCTM
sion path. For these standards, FPGA based BB-PLC channel emu- can be used as the pilot channel equipment for transmission line
lator is a very reliable solution for reproducible testing of MIMO relay as a primary channel, backup to other channels such as ber
transmission based PLC modems [143]. Presently, Virtex-6 FPGA or digital PLC, as well as being used as primary and secondary
Fig. 37. Block diagram of software stack for data -concentrator [129].
Fig. 38. Texas Instruments hybrid (i.e. wired and wireless) data-concentrator unit for AMI networks [129].
channels. As per IEC 61850 standard, secure transmission of data power-lines have become an increasingly popular choice to create
between HV systems (i.e. for substations, power generating sta- SG networks worldwide. As PLC has no boundaries and power-
tions, substations and control centers for remote operation and lines can be shared by several consumers through power outlet,
remote real-time signal monitoring, metering applications, control and can be vulnerable to both internal attackers and external at-
and fault protection) is a very critical issue, and additional security tackers. However, the security aspects of PLC networks, is a critical
feature/mechanism may also affect the performance of data issue for both operational and safety reasons.
transmission [147]. Multiple applications are envisioned and As per latest PLC regulations, standardizations and
Fig. 39. Schematic of MT54A series data-concentrators [131].

requesters. Only authorized/veried requesters must be able to

decrypt the encrypted PLC device data [150].
Considering all necessary requirements, it has been observed

that PLC device security should be exible enough to handle any
security threats that evolve over the recent years. However, the
security aspects of PLC device can be categorized into two types:
NB-PLC based security

BB-PLC based security
8.1. NB-PLC based security
Internet Protocol security (IPsec) is an end-to-end security

scheme while operating in the SG scenarios, Internet Protocol
Suite is expected to be one strong enabler for Internet Layer.
Fig. 40. A close snapshot of MT54A-Compact data-concentrator [132].
During AMI network with 50 end nodes, it has been proven that
ESP is twice as efcient as IPsec conguration [151]. G3-PLC
certications, every PLC device should complete life-cycle security
supports MAC-level 128-bit AES cryptographic security, while IEEE
from cradle to grave and fulll four necessary security require-
1901.2 standard, the MAC layer uses 802.15.4 based security me-
ments [148], as shown in Fig. 44, which can be described as given
chanism [11]. In-home network topologies introduce correlation
below:
among channels, and create the keyhole effect. The keyhole effect
Data authenticity and integrity: the results gained from REMPLI can reduce the secrecy rate at PHY layer. And it has been proven
that physical layer security (PLS) as compared to cryptographic
project, indicate that every PLC device not only provides reliable
mechanisms is a good option for condential data communication
data during power-line networks, but also tries to maintain data
authenticity and integrity [12]. over PLC networks [150]. With PRIME, the security of data trans-
Data condentiality: it is concerned with preserving un- mission is critical to protect consumer privacy and condentiality.
authorized restrictions on information access and disclosure, For access control and authentication based on pre-shared key
including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary (PSK) [11], and 128-bit AES encryption scheme can provide se-
information such as SM data. Due to worldwide SMI deploy- curity protections at MAC layer [152].
ments, it is a highly important asset for utility providers to Presently, TMS320F28PLC8x series PLC processors with 128-bit
protect/preserve consumer details (i.e. metrological and con- security key and lock facility are popular in various applications
sumption information). At every AMI Head-end, the exploita- (i.e. E-meters, solar inverters, PLC data-concentrators).
tion of consumer proles has to be condential from eaves- TMS320F28PLC8x series PLC processors are specially designed to
droppers, and only authorized persons/systems will have right support different PLC networks such as G3-PLC, PRIME and
to access the specic consumer details [11]. IEEE1901.2 standards within 3590 kHz frequency bands, and
Device authenticity: it has been observed that conventional execute the entire PLC protocol stack for latest PLC solutions and
trust mechanism such as public-key certicates does not work data-concentrators [153]. ZENO (MAX79356), is a programmable
with all domestic PLC devices [149]. OFDM-based NB-PLC modem SoC, and compliant with standards;
Consumer privacy and security: consumer privacy protection is G3-PLC, IEEE 1901.2, ITU G9903, PRIME high performance [154].
a key requirement of today's SG infrastructure. For this, PLC Using in-eld rmware update feature, it allows adoption of
device should have latest storage components with high se- changes and updates in PLC standards. The IC is integrated with
curity mechanism. It should not be accessed by unauthorized high-speed 128/256-bit AES encryption feature and its AES-CCM
Fig. 41. Electrical channel model and channel emulator: (a) three-stage electrical model; (b) channel emulator [135].
Fig. 42. Logic level architecture of the FPGA based channel emulator [144].
Table 9
Comparison of FPGA based PLC solutions (i.e. transceiver/simulator/emulator).
FPGA module/ board type PLC type/ Frequency range Modulation type / PLC standard support
-[133] NB-PLC (10450 kHz) M-ary bi-othogonal keying (MBOK) modulation

Xilinx Spartan-2 [134] NB-PLC (Up to 400 kHz) MBOK modulation
-[135] NB-PLC (7995 kHz) OFDM/ Differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK) modulation
-[136] Lite-PLC (10450 kHz) OFDM/ ARIB
Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T [137] NB-PLC (35.990.6 kHz) Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)/ G3-PLC
Xilinx Virtex-4 XC4VSX25 [138] NB-PLC (35.990.6 kHz) OFDM/ G3-PLC
Xilinx Virtex 1000E [141] NB-PLC (100500 kHz) OFDM/ 16QAM
Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX45 [142,333] (i) BB-PLC (i) OFDM/IEEE 1901

(ii) (107.68 MHz) NB-PLC (395 kHz) (ii) CENELEC A sub-band
Xilinx Virtex-7 VC707 [143] BB-PLC (Up to 30 MHz) HomePlug AV2.0, ITU-T G.hn G9963
Xilinx Virtex-6 XC6VLX760 [144] BB-PLC (Up to 200 MHz) HomePlug AV2.0
Xilinx Virtex-2 XC2VP20 [221] NB-PLC (200400 kHz) OFDM/ QPSK
Xilinx XC6VLX240T [334] BB-PLC (Below 100 MHz) Multi-carrier modulation (MCM)/ IEEE1901
Table 10
Software-tools for PLC channel/ network performance analysis.
Software PLC type Frequency range/ Purposes/Applications

Standard
OMNET [66] NB-PLC (3500 kHz) In-home/buildings based PLC network analysis
Smart energy prole (SEP) 1.0 NB-PLC (3500 kHz) Broadcasting control system of intelligent-air conditioners (BCS-iAC)
[223]
OMNET /INET framework BB-PLC (-) In-home based BB-PLC network analysis
[335]
G3-PLC simulator [336] NB-PLC (3591 kHz) In-home/building based G3-PLC network analysis
Inter-MAC software [337] BB-PLC (As per IEEE P1905) Estimates available bandwidth for path selection for heterogeneous home networks
HomePlug AV simulator [338] BB-PLC (228 MHz) For HomePlug AV based in-home network analysis and improvement
Phy-layer simulator [339] NB-PLC (3500 kHz) Measurement and simulation analysis of OFDM standards: ITU-T G.9904(PRIME) (ITU-T, 2012a), ITU-T
G.9903 (G3-PLC)(ITU-T,2014a)2 and IEEE 1901.2 (2013) (IEEE, 2013) based NB-PLC links in low-voltage
(LV) grids (including optional features such as coherent modulation, 16 quadrature amplitude mod-
ulation (QAM), or two Reeed-Solomon (RS) block capability
Table 11
Software-tools for PLC-based AMI channel/network performance analysis.
Software PLC type/Frequency range Purposes/ Applications
IPERF [49] BB-PLC (232 MHz) BB-PLC modems based AMR network analysis
MATLABs & NS-2 simulator [204] NB-PLC (3500 kHz) BER calculation for AMI applications
OMNET /MATLABs [340] NB-PLC (3591 kHz) PRIME standard based network topologies control/application message management
SIFONPRDEL [341] NB-PLC (3500 kHz) To optimize energy efciency for last mile of advanced metering management (AMM)
applications
OPNET simulator [342] NB-PLC (3690.6 kHz) Can simulate 1000 smart meters topologies under a proactive (RPL) and reactive (LOAD) packet
routing
ADD PRIME network manager/sniffer [343] NB-PLC (3591 kHz) PRIME standard based AMI network monitoring through smart meters UARTs interface
NS-3 simulator [344] NB-PLC (9500 kHz) To measure and analyze the performance of low-power NB-PLC in AMI services
(i.e. fabrication tolerances, bending of cables) [156], and during

experiment it has been proven that multi-conductors using MIMO
transmission not only improve the data rate of PLC systems, but
also facilitate the communication of condential messages with
PHY layer security methods/schemes [157]. Earlier, HomePlug
power-line alliance (HPA) dened a 56-bit data encryption stan-
dard (DES) encryption scheme [158]. During 2002, the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standardized/speci-
ed 128-bit AES encryption scheme for HomePlug standard, Zig-
bee, and ZWave technologies to secure data transmitted across the
physical network [159]. In Greece during 2008, based on the Intel's
Universal Plug and Play Platform, using Rijndael's encryption al-
gorithm, a secure fast, accurate and almost fully autonomic net-
work has been tested on pilot BB-PLC network [160]. Since
HomePlug utilizes existing home electrical wires instead of shiel-
ded coaxial cable, BB-PLC transmissions may be unintentionally
transmitted into the air at RF transmission [161]. Thus, to prevent
RF transmission from being intercepted by unwanted parties,
HomePlug uses the same PHY layer encryption as Zigbee and
ZWave, HomePlug AV standard is secured by 128-bit AES en-
cryption scheme [35]. This encryption scheme uses the crypto-
graphic isolation such as network encryption Key (NEK) and is
performed on individual segments as the MAC protocol data unit
(MPDUs) are created. The HomePlug AV standard architecture also
Fig. 43. MT-VN22 PLC communication module [145]. permits encryption key management by higher layer security and
authentication standards such as 802.1x series and extensible
authentication protocol (EAP). As per ITU-T recommendation
X.1035, G.hn standard uses AES encryption algorithm to ensure
condentiality and message integrity. G.hn standard species end-
Data
authenticity and to-end security inside a domain, which means that each pair of
integrity transmitter and receiver uses a unique encryption key which is not
shared by other devices in the same domain [37]. The IEEE1901
Data Device standard does not have any special admission access control
PLC
confidentiality device authenticity scheme and adopts security scheme of the IEEE802.1x series
standard specications. During in-home PLC applications, the
Consumer network base intrusion detection system (IDS) can provide secure
privacy and network [162]. IEEE 1901 HD-PLC standard uses 128-bit encryp-
security tion scheme by auto setting [36]. During HV distribution-net-
works, the combination of AES and a keyed-hash message au-
Fig. 44. PLC device security objectives [148]. thentication code (HMAC)-MD5 message-digest algorithm is ef-
fective and viable solution for secure data transmission [147].
engine ensures standard compliant data communication security devolo is already involved in PLC systems research and data
and integrity in a small package. security research with their domestic and global partners [163].
Gridstreams is Landis Gyr's solution [155], as shown in Presently at the Aachen, Germany more than 90 developers are
Fig. 45, combines smart metering applications, hybrid commu- working on PLC based products/solutions to constantly increase
nications, network monitoring/management, software, grid and their performance, and to form one of the largest PLC research
consumer applications, and other professional services in a single teams in the world. As part of this collaboration, the company is
secure and integrated platform. Consumer data owing through a also active in various funding projects as are mentioned given
smart metering system is ordinarily exposed to various risks, such below, for successfully confronting the future challenges with in-
as intrusions in the eld network, the data centre or even at sys- novative products and services:
tem level. For this Gridstreams solution securely provides en-
crypted and authenticated communications between Head-end C/sells - The smart grid window into the future
system and SMs, and can be categorized into four types: WindNODE - Northeast Germany sets the example for smart
energy
Protects against unauthorized access, theft or misuse of SM enera - digitalisation of the energy supply
information SEnCom - System security of energy supply networks
Ensures the condentiality, integrity, authenticity and avail- ENERGIE - Measurement of the low-voltage side network state
ability of SM data variables in real time
Prevents unauthorized devices gaining access to the SM SmartLive - Sustainable innovation development in the Living
network Lab for the smart home/smart energy
Contributes to maintain privacy of SM users SPIDER - Secure Powerline data communication in intelligent
energy networks
8.2. BB-PLC based security FINESCE - Future Internet Smart Utility Services
UUIS - Practically oriented development and testing of com-
Multi-conductor power-line cables have multiple, coupled prehensive energy management solutions
propagation modes with corresponding measurement parameters ACEMIND / AutoCong 2.5 - Flexible use of various data
Fig. 45. Overview of key management in Gridstreams [155].
transmission paths as installed solar system costs decline from $3.83/W in 2015 to
Project ELABOX - Innovative electric vehicle charging station $1.87/W in 2035, an attractive economic case will emerge in 2023,
communication leading to strong growth. As per the renewable systems inter-
HIGHPERF-PLC - Access Powerline for intelligent energy connection (RSI) study, the DPS system [165], should be equipped
networks with advanced communications and control technologies that are
GREENTRANS - Development of a broadband modem for cars to integrated with solar energy grid integration systems, as shown in
communicate via a connected charging cable Fig. 46. PLC based smart grid technologies/solutions are propelling
TECHNO-PLC - Development of a communication module for for renewable energy applications in for DC-DC conversion based
communicating between transformer houses distributed power system [166].
DLC-VIT4IP - High-performance energy data communication on As per IEEE 1547.32007 standard specications, for a reliable
IP infrastructure active distribution network, the benets deploying distributed
energy resources (DERs) which represent as a group of energy
resources and provide a myriad of possibilities such as electric
9. Observations and recommendations of power-line commu- energy generation, conversion, storage units includes following
nications based systems/solutions for renewable energies four capabilities [167]:
integration
Remote scheduling, monitoring and control of the geo-
Distributed-power system (DPS) is a worldwide adopted power graphically dispersed DER units;
structure for various applications (i.e. renewable energy, aerospace Active and reactive power management to ensure power qual-
industry, and telecommunication/computer system). During the ity. For instance, DER unit might be requested to absorb or
last decade, it has received increasing attention from various supply reactive power to maintain network equilibrium;
governments, utility organizations and research communities. The Voltage regulation to maintain synchronism with the area EPS;
most signicant challenge with renewable energy production is its and
intermittency. Renewable energy sources (i.e. solar and wind Provision of other ancillary services such as spinning and non-
power) provides an inconsistent source of energy, and the provi- spinning reserve, reduction of energy losses, load regulation,
sion of the energy to the power grids through the DPS system etc.
requires a suitable mode of communication to monitor/control this
energy when there is excess available, to make up for deciencies However, the emergence of hybrid electronic devices/solutions
when they are unable to operate. Lux Research [164], predicts that to enable remote communication with the attached units, proffers
distributed energy storage for solar systems will be worth $8 bil- a possible system/solution for monitoring and controlling of DER
lion in 2026, as solar combines with storage to continue its re- units. Alternatively, the SMI deployment with energy services in-
markable growth. Energy storage will increase the distributed terface (ESI) provides support for end-to-end communications (i.e.
solar market by 25 GW annually in 2026. Adding storage adds islanding, diagnosing, protecting and control, starting/stopping the
costs, affecting revenue streams and addressable market size, but DER units) [5]. Hybrid network architecture forms a reliable, high-
Fig. 46. The solar energy grid integration system integrated with advanced distribution-power system (DPS) [165].
Fig. 47. Block diagram of OFDM based hybrid (power-line and wireless) network architecture [170].
capacity, and cost-effective access network for BB-PLC based SG rmware code to the transceiver remotely over the various PLC
infrastructures (i.e. smart cities, smart homes/buildings, and smart based applications (i.e. solar micro-inverters, transformer mon-
mobility) [168,169]. During MV power-line networks, the OFDM itoring, substation communications and street-lighting networks)
based hybrid network [170], as shown in Fig. 47, is able to max- [174]. During MV networks, for distribution grid management
imize the data rate up to 30 Mbps. applications (i.e. SMs and PV plants data gathering/monitoring),
ASK modulation, which is commonly considered in industrial BB-PLC is a proven technology [175]. In low-voltage direct-current
communication network applications, is useful for PLChvdc mod- (LVDC) electricity distribution systems, G3-PLC is a feasible and
ules for the measurement/monitoring of high-voltage direct cur- effective solution for consumer-end inverter (CEI) analysis [176].
rent (HVDC) transmission systems [171]. Binary amplitude shift The HomePlug GP standard has now been selected by the auto-
keying (BASK) and the binary frequency shift keying (BFSK) motive industry in order to communicate between the charging
modulation based PLC modem can manage/control solar trackers column and electric or hybrid motor vehicles. Thanks to its low
in vast solar farm up to 500 m [172]. As compared to traditional energy consumption feature, and, despite this, its reliable high
S-FSK based PLC solutions with their limited speed (25 Kbps), PLC data rates in comparison with other HomePlug GP standard based
Lite (within 150 kHz) achieves data rates up to 21 Kbps across PLC solutions, inside the home are well-suited for conventional
AC/DC power-lines [129]. It uses OFDM modulation with BPSK radio technologies (i.e. Bluetooth, Zigee, EnOcean or WiFi) solu-
encoding provides robust communications to solar arrays. EnVerv tions [84]. AMI networks and smart inverters associated with PV
developed EV8000, a single-chip PLC transceiver with program- systems/infrastructure are being deployed in large numbers and
mable architecture covering various frequency bands (i.e. CEN- serve as the distributed voltage sensors and control elements for
ELEC-A, FCC and ARIB) supports data rates of up to 1 Mbps, an advanced Volt/VAr control (AVVC) systems [177]. To connect
without the need for hardware changes [173]. Furthermore, the hundreds and even thousands of SMs, G3-PLC based PLC solutions
EV8000 soft-modem can also be programmed to operate in ITU-T are able to provide end-to-end latency and the data rate to each
G.9903 (G3-PLC), ITU-T G.9904 (PRIME), IEEE P1901.2 and IEC- SM location [178].
61334 (S-FSK) modes simply by downloading their respective NB-PLC systems/solutions fullls IEC 61850 standard
Fig. 48. Block diagram of PLC based micro-inverter [180].
Fig. 49. Yamar's PLC transceivers for solar panel management system [183].
requirements and has been proven solution for the remote mon- At present various semiconductor chip design companies are
itoring and control of distributed generators (DGs) and energy working towards PLC based solar energy harvesting systems,
storage systems (ESSs) connected to LV distribution networks of which enable reactive power handling necessary functions (i.e.
the island of Ustica [179]. A global concern for future access to control of power stages, phase/frequency locking, and maximum
affordable, sustainable energy is driving the development of more power-point tracking (MPPT) techniques) in an efcient and reli-
efcient solar power generation. In any PV based system, the mi- able manner. The efciency of PV system consisting of multiple
cro-inverter is a backbone responsible for various applications (i.e. solar panels can be improved signicantly by optimizing the
control of electricity ow between the PV module, battery, loads, working point of each panel. Using PLC technique, the central
and power grid), as shown in Fig. 48. Shading effects and com- energy management unit can read each panel performance, as
ponent aging of PV panels during renewable energy installations shown in Fig. 49. Based on the gathered information, the central
are challenging problems in an energy production system. For this, management unit can instruct each panel to operate at a working
PLC device characteristics help during PV panels fault diagnosis point that will provide the highest system energy performance.
[181], and grid connected single-phase inverters monitoring/con- Although the solar panels are connected serially, still Yamar's PLC
trol applications [182]. devices/solutions like SIG60 [82] and DCB1M [83] are able to
Fig. 50. Roof-top solar panel installation with Cypress Semiconductor's CY8CPLCxx series PLC solution [180].
communicate on such HV lines. Power inverters cause signicant at each module, maximum power-point, potential faults, and
impulse noises on power-lines, but the SIG60 is able to overcome power generated), as shown in Fig. 50.
these interfering signals. Cypress Semiconductor developed RWE Poland is one of the most advanced and leading electricity
CY8CPLCxx series PLC IC, complied with PHY layer, network pro- suppliers in Poland. The company market environment and the
tocol and programmable application layer, and has additional re- demands of the community are changing with the transition of the
sources that allow for taking external sensor input. The PLC IC can energy systems in Europe, as shown in Fig. 51. During 2000 in
monitor/control micro-inverter vital parameters (i.e. temperature Germany, RWE Poland provided PLC technology for cost-efcient
Fig. 51. RWE Poland power station capacities in Europe [184].

energies (2013: 7%) [184]. The sustainable development strategy is

an integral part of RWE Poland strategy and are focusing on gen-
erating "green" energy - particularly with photovoltaic [186]. Since
the end of 2015 in Warsaw, at the RWE Poland ofce building, the
Solar-Log energy management system from Solare Datensys-
teme GmbH (SDS) has been successfully installed and monitored
the 12 kWp PV plants, as shown in Fig. 52. Embodied with 128 bit
AES encyption scheme [187], the PoweLine Package (i.e. an in-
tegrated electrical socket), as shown in Fig. 53, is a problem-free
alternate for transmitting data (with 500 Mbps speed) between
Solar-Log solutions and the personal computer (PC) up to 300 m
distance.
Helen Limited is one of the biggest utility companies in Finland,
and has been awarded as the most efcient in the world [188].
Helen has around 400,000 consumers throughout Finland and
develops increasingly eco-friendly and innovative solutions to
Fig. 52. PV plant REW Poland with the Solar-Log energy-management-system achieve 100% carbon neutrality in their energy production. Land-
[186]. is Gyr and Toshiba are chosen to deliver the battery energy sto-
rage system (BESS) with its output of 1.2 MW and energy capacity
of 677kWh, as shown in Fig. 54. Besides the battery system that
contains more than 13,000 lithium-ion SCiB battery cells, the
delivery also includes a master control system (MCS), two power
inverters, and a transformer. It is expected that the BESS will be
the biggest of its kind in the Nordic countries and will start
commercial operation in May 2016. Nowadays, an increasing
number of batteries are equipped with a digital battery manage-
ment system (BMS) for lifetime improvement or safety issues.
High voltage battery packs consists of a large number of individual
rechargeable cells; in addition, lithium-ion battery requires con-
stant management of each cell State Of Charge (SOC) and State Of
Health (SOH). As such, they are extremely expensive and their
tight management is of crucial importance. To save all these ex-
pensive wires and simplies BMS, Yamar's PLC solutions allows
exchanging information between energy management system
(EMS) and each BMS using PLC on the DC power bus, as shown in
Fig. 55. For small-scale PV system, proposed PLC solution can
achieve data rates up to 10 Kbps and manages 8 batteries [189].
Fig. 53. The PoweLine Package (an integrated electrical socket) from Solar-Log
[187].
10. Conclusions
applications and was estimated the largest grid operation of power
Today, smart energy has become a much-publicized buzzword
cables with more than 360 000 km distance [185]. At the close of
among various governments, industries and universities. It could
2014, RWE Poland had power station with totaling capacities
describe anything from energy production to efcient use of that
49,064 MW. 32% of this electricity was generated from gas (2013: energy. PLC is playing a vital role in making our energy practices/
34%), 23% from lignite (2013: 23%), 21% from hard coal (2013: 20%), requirements smart. Different countries and utility companies are
8% from nuclear energy (2013: 8%) and 7.5% from renewable working to establish better communication technologies and
Fig. 54. The 1.2 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in Finland [188].
quality of the entire city/national grid. Worldwide power grids

safety is also another critical factor for deploying dispatchable and
controllable DERs. As per IEEE standard 1547.62011 re-
commendations, the network protectors (NPs) in the conventional
EPS were designed to trip at very high speed of 50 ms delay [167].
The integration of DERs has a high tendency to cause emergent
behaviors and may introduce momentary short delay in opening
for faults on the feeders which exposes the utility workforce to
danger and increases the risk of damage to assets such as blackout.
Consequently, in order to harness the benets of these emerging
technologies, large scale deployments of DERs with minimal im-
pact on the grid requires dispatchable and controllable DERs with
generic communication interface. For this latest emerging stan-
dard, ISO/IEC/IEEE 21451 has wide scope and possibility of ac-
ceptance into a variety of systems (i.e. home-networks, smart grid/
metering, in-vehicle networking) and encouraging NB-PLC solu-
tion manufacturers for SG deployment, in terms of interoper-
ability, grid conguration, exibility and scalability, and their in-
Fig. 55. Yamar's PLC transceivers for high-voltage battery packs based battery
monitoring system (BMS) [183]. tegration with other devices/solutions based on their different
modulation schemes [190].
control over their electricity resources, manage peak demand, PLC is the only accessable and IEC 61334 series standards
operate more efciently, and accommodate massive amounts of proven technology, which forms the core of a comprehensive
smart metering M/441 architecture based on international stan-
multiple DERs and their interconnection to the area specic elec-
dards [1]. The smart metering architecture, as shown in Fig. 56, is
tric power system (EPS). They include PV arrays, micro-turbines,
also considered as a basis for the standardization work issued by
wind-turbines, fuel-cells, traditional diesel and natural gas re-
the European Commission and built around a PLC communication
ciprocating engines, and BMS with latest energy storage technol-
stack that is structured to embed perfectly into the existing ap-
ogies. The 21st century worldwide SGs are envisaged to be plug-
plication standards framework. The open system interconnection
and-play connections of decentralized micro-grids and DERs (OSI) layering ensures expandability, taking the evolution of PLC
providing a bi-directional ow of electric power and information. technology into account, while at the same time maintaining
The conventional distribution networks are gradually evolving into backwards compatibility with already proven solutions. The
smart distribution networks with the proliferation of these units. standards framework allows enough exibility to incorporate new
Moreover, there is increasing pressure and demand on the utilities PLC technologies, thus providing a smooth upgrade path from
to accommodate renewable energy resources into the area EPS today's eld proven S-FSK technology towards the emerging
from all public policy makers and stakeholders. Furthermore, DERs OFDM based technologies. The Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) is
deployments have the capacity to inject DC current, producing a family of specications published by the European Tele-
harmonics and ickers that can slow down/hamper the power communications Standards Institute (ETSI) and used in
Fig. 56. The smart metering architecture, M/441 as per standardization work issued by the European Commission [1].
controllable energy for the society and industry by actively in-

volving users in production and monitor of energy. The surveyed
researches show that the worldwide SGs are rapidly improving,
depending on the advances in PLC standardization/certication.
PLC security is a very fruitful and challenging research area. Now it
is still under development and on the agenda of fabless semi-
conductor chip design companies in the world for a new demo-
cratic, sustainable and secure SG environment. However, only a
few of them are successfully implementing the appropriate in-
itiatives. The measures toward security are not too complex to
achieve, keeping the growth of new PC standardization and
technologies in view. However, PLC based worldwide SG super-
vision from various governments and standardization enforcing
bodies are necessary. Semiconductor chip design companies must
take initiatives toward PLC based security systems/solutions right
now. For small/medium and large-sized companies it may be ex-
Fig. 57. devolo's G3-PLC modem 500k [193].
pensive but in the long run they can save initiative towards secure
green technologies and cloud computing and will reduce the
power needed per bit of data. In the quest for a better and secure
conjunction with the ISO/IEC 14908 control networking standard world, for the next generation PLC based SG deployment. Based on
for SG applications [191]. The protocol is optimized to provide the review, it is commonly recognized among the many choices
reliable and efcient delivery of command/control information for available (i.e. from classical PLC standards/technologies to current
SMs, direct load control modules, solar panels, gateways, and other PLC standards/technologies), as no single technology and security
smart grid devices. OSGP based Networked Energy Services Cor- solution ts for all SG applications/infrastructures. However, it
poration (NES) solutions around the globe are in practice by dif- seems necessary to more investigate and assess the different as-
ferent utilities around 4 million smart end-points [192]. Recently pects of suitable PLC technology for specic SG application in
NES has become a member of the G3-PLC Alliance to promote G3- detail. Although this work is ongoing and big efforts are still
PLC standard to ensure interoperability of new SG based ecosys- needed to accomplish this task, and the hurdles to be overcome for
tems. Presently, several fabless semiconductor chip design com- realization of nobel SG operation.
panies are providing PLC ICs in compliance with the IEC 61334-5-1
standard and based on interoperable PLC components, smart
metering solution providers are offering end-to-end PLC based Acknowledgement
AMI solutions. PLC coverage In Europe is better than Wi-Fi cov-
erage where housing/building construction is harder for Wi-Fi to This work was supported by Department of Electrical En-
penetrate. Depending on network characteristics and their topol- gineering, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, India, and
ogy types, devolo's G3-PLC modem 500k [193], as shown in Fig. 57, also by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
within (150500 kHz) frequency range can transfer data up to 240 Government of India. The authors would like to thank the Editor
Kbps (D8PSK modulation), performs a stable and reliable con- and anonymous Reviewers for their helpful and constructive
nection with 100% building penetration capability. Without re- comments that greatly contributed to improving the nal version
peater up to 1.7 km range devolo's G3-PLC modem 500k, is a of the paper.
proved solution to operate not only in smart metering scenario
with intelligent power meters, smart meter gateways (SMGWs)
but also in network status monitoring, controlling renewable en- References
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 67 (2017) 704751

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Power-line communications for smart grid: Progress, challenges,

data-concentrators are described in Section 6, Field-program- Broadband power-line communication (BB-PLC)

Table 1 G3-PLC (ITU-T G.9903)

UNB-PLC [7] NB-PLC QB-PLC [26] BB-PLC

Fig. 2. Classication of PLC standards.

Fig. 4. X-10 controller for in-home based applications [9].

Hermitian-symmetric orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

Fig. 14. Architectural diagram of HomePlug AV (HPAV) standard [35].

cables are difcult to repair, and their repairing may takes 59

1. 10 m 150 HD 603 0.61 (130 MHz) Power Switzerland

6. 50150 IEC60502 8.715 (120 MHz) Lab Canada [233]

AL3  95XLPE [234]

1. 100 m 11.9 IS 7098 (Part 2) 3.333 Power Greece [39]

(i) ACSR [240]

Software PLC type / Frequency range Purposes

Real time Simulation

8 km 10500 kHz 25 QPSK, 8PSK MV to MV USA [61]

250 m2.5 km 50150 kHz 1540 FSK MV to LV Italy [92]

200 m6.43 km 84 kHz 3040 DBPSK, DQPSK, ROBOUST LV to LV France [217]

500 m (i) 230320 kHz (i) 10 NBPLC (i) LV to MV Taiwan [223]

1 km 50150 kHz 15 FSK MV to LV Italy [277]

Fig. 16. Cross-phase coupling of PLC signals [68].

Fig. 17. Bus impedance is a function of paralleled poly-phase lines [68].

Fig. 19. PLC transceiver for smart grid applications.

Fig. 20. Architecture of DLMS/COSEM standard/protocol [102].

migration path which enables utilities to read every single meter

tection facility. With iiDEASs (Intelligent Infrastructure: Data, Ef-

Home automation, AMR and advanced meter manage-

ciency, Analytics and Services) technology consumers can effec-

Lighting systems, HVAC systems, security systems,

tively manage multiple utility systems, including AMI networks,

through a web browser or mobile devices.

The INT5200 integrated power-line MAC/PHY layer based

transceiver is the world's rst complete HomePlug 1.0 standard

chronization is achieved in low SNR channels without the use of

tegrated design combines an analog-to-digital converter (ADC),

digital-to-analog converter (DAC), adaptive gain control (AGC),

repeaters is possible [114]. PLC technology is spurious to radiation

CENELEC C-band, EN50065-

facilities themselves which can strongly affect radio communica-

proper ltering applications were normally operated for amateur

radio services [115]. In Switzerland, the Federal Ofce of Com-

PLC systems were strong enough to violate the German NB30

FSK ( Up to 132.5 kHz)

Till date there is no specied European Harmonized Standard

cedures and methods for assessment. devolo with University of

from the present discussions in CENELEC concerning in-house PLC

ducted and radiated signals carefully examined with radiated

measurements in lab, as shown in Fig. 25 and during eld trials at

various locations in Vattenfall's power grid, as shown in Fig. 26.

results within German SchuTSEV limits, as shown in Fig. 27, to

BlueChip PLC, [118] is the world's rst fully IEEE1901 standard

national level. Hence devolo's G3-PLC based products have Con-

Fig. 23. A typical automated street-light network topology [106].

data concentrator is becoming the optimal solution to deliver the

Fig. 29. Architecture of HD-PLC standard based PLC transceiver IC [118].

Fig. 27. Devolo's electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test-results at various dis-

Fig. 31. Beacon 3100 G3-PLC data-concentrator [120].

Fig. 32. CURRENT's intelligent data-concentrator [123].

in order to maintain the balanced state.

MT54A-Compact, as shown in Fig. 40, is embodied with

AL3 95XLPE [234]