Communication Over Power Line

Akshat Srivastava

Electrical & Electronics

Sec-C , R.No.-91
Manipal Institute Of Technology, Manipal,
Karnataka -576104,INDIA
e-mail:akshatsrivastava.lko@gmail.com

Abstract— Electrical power is transmitted over high

voltage transmission lines, distributed over medium
voltage, and used inside buildings at lower voltages.
Powerline communications can be applied at each stage.
All power line communications systems operate by
impressing a modulated carrier signal on the wiring
system. Different types of powerline communications use
different frequency bands, depending on the signal
transmission characteristics of the power wiring used.
Since the power wiring system was originally intended for
transmission of AC power, in conventional use, the power
wire circuits have only a limited ability to carry higher
frequencies. The propagation problem is a limiting factor
for each type of power line communications.
Keywords— Power Line Carrier Communication,
Broadband Over Power Lines, Home Networking
INTRODUCTION
Communication Over Power Line is also known as power
line carrier (PLC) or power line telecom (PLT) and power line
networking (PLN). Power Lines were originally devised to
transmit electricity at a frequency 50-60 Hz. Now a days
power lines are being used for communication as welll. At
high voltage level power line is used to communicate between
substations, at medium voltage level to provide
broadband Internet access and at low voltage level for local
area networking and sharing existing broadband Internet
access.
system and to give uninterrupted supply to the consumers.
Power line carrier communication (PLCC) is mainly used for
telecommunication, tele-protection and tele-monitoring
between electrical substations through power lines at high
voltages, such as 110 kV, 220 kV, 400 kV. In a PLCC system
the communication is established through the power line.
PLCC integrates the transmission of communication signal
and 50/60 Hz power signal through the same electric power
cable. The audio frequency is carried by a carrier frequency
and the range of carrier frequency is from 50 kHz to 500 kHz.
The voice signal is converted/compressed into the 300 Hz to
4000 Hz range, and this audio frequency is mixed with the
carrier frequency. The modulation generally used in these
systems is amplitude modulation. The carrier frequency range
is allocated to include the audio signal, protection and the
pilot frequency. The pilot frequency is a signal in the audio
range that is transmitted continuously for failure detection.
The carrier frequency is again filtered, amplified and
transmitted. The transmission of these HF carrier frequencies
will be in the range of 0 to +32db. This range is set according
to the distance between substations. Different types of power
line communications use different frequency bands,
depending on the signal transmission characteristics of the
power wiring used. PLCC can be used for interconnecting
PBXs. The electricity board in India has an internal network
PLCC between PBXs.

I. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM IN A
SUBSTATION-PLCC

Power generation and transmission need a good &healthy

communication system for proper functioning of the power
Communication System In A Substation

The equipments used in PLCC are under-
a) Outdoor equipments: equipments installed at switch
yard are called Outdoor equipments.
Details of Outdoor equipments are as under:
Line trap-It is also called "Wave trap". It is connected in
series with the power (transmission) line. It blocks the high
frequency carrier waves (24 KHz to 500 KHz) and let power
waves (50Hz - 60Hz) to pass through. It is basically an
inductor of rating in mili henry.
Capacitor voltage transformer (CVT)-It allows to pass the
frequency to line.
Coupling capacitor-It provides low impedance path for
carrier energy to HV line and blocks the power frequency
circuit by being a high impedance path easily.
Line matching unit- LMU is a composite unit consisting of
Drain Coil, Isolation transformer with Lightning Arrester on
its both the sides, a Tuning Device and an earth switch.
Tuning Device is the combination of R-L-C circuits which act
as filter circuit. LMU is also known as Coupling Device.
Together with coupling capacitor, LMU serves the purpose of
connecting effectively the Audio/Radio frequency signals to
either transmission line or PLC terminal and protection of the
PLCC unit from the over voltages caused due to transients on
power system. It is also used for matching the impedance of
the power line and HF cable.
Balancing Transformer (BT)-it is used when phase to phase
communication systemis used for balancing the two LMU.
HF cable: it is used to carry the signal from PLCC cabinet
to switch yard.
b) Indoor equipment: The equipments installed in the
control room are called indoor equipments.
PLCC Cabinet: it is installed in control room. It has two
sections:
1). Transmitter
2). Receiver
In transmitter, voice frequency(VF) is amplified and then
modulated to intermediate frequency(IF) and amplified,
modulated into HF and then transmitted and in receiver
section HF signal is received and then demodulated from HF
to IF and connected to the telephone.
II. BROADBAND OVER POWER LINES (BPL)
Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as power-
line Internet or powerband, is the use of PLC technology to
provide broadband Internet access through ordinary power
lines. A computer (or any other device) would need only to
plug a BPL "modem" into any outlet in an equipped building
to have high-speed Internet access. BPL may offer benefits
over regular cable or DSL connections: the extensive
infrastructure already available appears to allow people in
remote locations to access the Internet with relatively little
equipment investment by the utility. Cost of running wires
such as Ethernet in many buildings can be prohibitive;
Relying on wireless has a number of predictable problems
including security, limited maximum throughput and inability
to power devices efficiently.
By slightly modifying the current power grids with
specialized equipment, the BPL developers could partner with
power companies and Internet service providers to bring
broadband to everyone with access to electricity.
At this point, the proposal is for two types of BPL service:
1) In-House BPL will network machines within a
building.
2) Access BPL will carry broadband Internet using
power lines and allow power companies to
electronically monitor power systems.
By providing high-speed data transmission between all of
the electrical plugs in a house, there is the potential to network
all kinds of common appliances in a household.
Both electricity and the RF used to transmit data vibrate at
certain frequencies. In order for data to transmit cleanly from
point to point, it must have a dedicated band of the radio
spectrum at which to vibrate without interference from other
sources.
Hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity don't vibrate
at a consistent frequency. That amount of power jumps all
over the spectrum. As it spikes and hums along, it creates all
kinds of interference. If it spikes at a frequency that is the
same as the RF used to transmit data, then it will cancel out
that signal and the data transmission will be dropped or
damaged. BPL bypasses this problem by avoiding high-
voltage power lines all together. The system drops the data off
of traditional fiber-optic lines downstream, onto the much
more manageable 7,200 volts of medium-voltage power lines.
Once dropped on the medium-voltage lines, the data can only
travel so far before it degrades. To counter this, special
devices are installed on the lines to act as repeaters. The
repeaters take in the data and repeat it in a new transmission,
amplifying it for the next leg of the journey.
The CT Coupler allows the data on the line to bypass
transformers. The transformer's job is to reduce the 7,200
volts down to the 240-volt standard that makes up normal
household electrical service. There is no way for low-power
data signals to pass through a transformer, so you need a
coupler to provide a data path around the transformer. With
the coupler, data can move easily from the 7,200-volt line to
the 240-volt line and into the house without any degradation.
In the various approaches to last-mile solutions for BPL, some
companies carry the signal in with the electricity on the power
line, while others put wireless links on the poles and send the
data wirelessly into homes.
BPL modems use silicon chipsets specially designed to
handle the work load of pulling data out of an electric current.
Using specially developed modulation techniques and
adaptive algorithms, BPL modems are capable of handling
powerline noise on a wide spectrum.The BPL modem simply
plugs into the wall and then into your computer. These
modems are capable of speeds comparable to DSL or cable
modems. A BPL modem is plug and play and is roughly the
size of a common power adapter. It plugs into a common wall
socket, and an Ethernet cable running to your computer
finishes the connection. Wireless versions are also available.
Deployment of BPL has illustrated a number of
fundamental challenges, the primary one being that power
lines are inherently a very noisy environment. Every time a
device turns on or off, it introduces a pop or click into the line.
Energy-saving devices often introduce noisy harmonics into
the line. The system must be designed to deal with these
natural signaling disruptions and work around them.
The second major issue is signal strength and operating
frequency. The system is expected to use frequencies of 10 to
30 MHz, which has been used for many decades by amateur
radio operators, as well as international shortwave
broadcasters and a variety of communications systems
(military, aeronautical, etc.). Power lines are unshielded and
will act as antennas for the signals they carry, and have the
potential to interfere with shortwave radio communications.
Modern BPL systems use OFDM modulation, which allows
them to mitigate interference with radio services by removing
specific frequencies used. A 2001 joint study by the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL) and HomePlug Powerline
Alliance showed that for modems using this technique "in
general that with moderate separation of the antenna from the
structure containing the HomePlug signal that interference
was barely perceptible at the notched frequencies" and
interference only happened when the "antenna was physically
close to the power lines".
III. HOME NETWORKING (Homeplug)
Homeplug is the PLC solution in commercial use today for
indoor installations , these are ideal for extending a local area
network and sharing existing broadband Internet access,
mainly for domestic or small business use, with easy
installation. Homeplug, has a theoretical bandwidth of
14Mbps. Other solutions also exist with bandwidth ranging
from 2Mbps to 45Mbps. A 100Mbps solution has been
laboratory tested. However, the available bandwidths are
sufficient for the majority of domestic applications taking the
Homeplug rate of 14Mbps as an example.
Power line communications can also be used in a home to
interconnect home computers (and networked peripherals), as
well as any home entertainment devices that have an Ethernet
port. Consumers can buy powerline adapter and use those to
establish a wired connection using the existing electrical
wiring in the home. The powerline adapters plug into a wall
outlet and then are connected to the home’s router. Then, a
second adapter can be plugged in at any other outlet to give
instant networking and Internet access to an Ethernet-
equipped device. The most established and widely deployed
powerline networking standard for these powerline adapter
products is from the HomePlug Powerline Alliance.
HomePlug AV is the most current of the HomePlug
specifications and it has been adopted by the IEEE p1901
group as a baseline technology for their standard. HomePlug
estimates that over 45 million HomePlug devices have been
deployed worldwide. Other companies and organizations back
different specifications for power line home networking and
these include the Universal Powerline Association, the HD-
PLC Alliance and the ITU-T’s G.hn specification.
REFERENCES
1) www.nwc.com
2) www.currenttechnologie.com
3) www.powerlinecommunication.com
4) www.homeplug.org
5) www.wikipedia.org
6) www.howstuffswork.com