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Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2023) | Viewed by 26579

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Fang Yang

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Guest Editor

Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: wireless communication; power line communication; wireless optical communication; AI-assisted communication

Dr. Sicong Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Interests: compressed sensing; vehicular networks; wireless communication; power line communication; visible light communication

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Power line communication has been applied in various important scenarios, including communications for sensing networks, smart sensing, sensor signal measurement and data fusion, smart grid, internet of things (IoT), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), broadcasting, smart metering, etc., and internetworking with other communication media. To address the ever-increasing demand of PLC and convey the frontiers in the research and applications in this popular field, this Special Issue focuses on practical and industrial applications of power line communications, theoretical and practical aspects of communications theory, algorithms, channel and noise measurements, EMC, simulations and real implementations, evaluation from field trials and related experience, network planning, installation, operation and management, protocols, cybersecurity, standards and regulations pertaining to communications via power lines, and related topics.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

MIMO, modulation, coding and signal processing for PLC;
Access, in-home and in-vehicle power line networks;
Noise effects over PLC, channel characterization, modelling, emulation, and experimental systems;
PLC standardization and regulation;
Field trial evaluations and results;
Broadband and multimedia applications;
PLC for smart metering and distribution automation;
PLC integration with electric grid assets;
PLC integration with visible light communication;
Network planning and optimization;
Coexistence and interoperability;
Cross-layer optimization and service integration;
Physical security and cybersecurity in PLC;
Artificial intelligence techniques for PLC

Dr. Fang Yang
Dr. Sicong Liu
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 10447 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Validation of Machine Learning-Aided and Power Line Communication-Based Cable Monitoring Using Measurement Data

by Yinjia Huo, Kevin Wang, Lutz Lampe and Victor C.M. Leung

Sensors 2024, 24(2), 335; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s24020335 - 05 Jan 2024

Viewed by 676

Abstract

The implementation of power line communications (PLC) in smart electricity grids provides us with exciting opportunities for real-time cable monitoring. In particular, effective fault classification and estimation methods employing machine learning (ML) models have been proposed in the recent past. Often, the research works presenting PLC for ML-aided cable diagnostics are based on the study of synthetically generated channel data. In this work, we validate ML-aided diagnostics by integrating measured channels. Specifically, we consider the concatenation of clustering as a data pre-processing procedure and principal component analysis (PCA)-based dimension reduction for cable anomaly detection. Clustering and PCA are trained with measurement data when the PLC network is working under healthy conditions. A possible cable anomaly is then identified from the analysis of the PCA reconstruction error for a test sample. For the numerical evaluation of our scheme, we apply an experimental setup in which we introduce degradations to power cables. Our results show that the proposed anomaly detector is able to identify a cable degradation with high detection accuracy and low false alarm rate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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22 pages, 7508 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Environmental Impacts of Radio Frequency and Power Line Communication for Advanced Metering Infrastructures in Smart Grids

by Ons BenRhouma, Chiheb Rebai, Manel Ben-Romdhane, Dario Di Cara, Giovanni Artale and Nicola Panzavecchia

Sensors 2023, 23(24), 9621; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23249621 - 05 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1726

Abstract

In the neighborhood area network (NAN), the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) enables a bidirectional connection between the smart meter (SM) and the data concentrator (DC). Sensors, such as smart meter nodes or environmental sensor nodes, play a crucial role in measuring and transmitting data to central units for advanced monitoring, management, and analysis of energy consumption. Wired and wireless communication technologies are used to implement the AMI-NAN. This paper delves into a novel approach for optimizing the choice of communication medium, air for radio frequency (RF) or power lines for power line communication (PLC), between the SM and DC in the context of the AMI-NAN. The authors methodically select the specific technologies, RF and NB-PLC (narrowband power line communication), and meticulously characterize their attributes. Then, a comparative analysis spanning rural, urban, and industrial settings is conducted to evaluate the proposed method. The overall reliability performance of the AMI-NAN system requires a packet error rate (PER) lower than 10%. To this end, an efficient approach is introduced to assess and enhance the reliability of NB-PLC and RF for AMI-NAN applications. Simulation results demonstrate that wireless communication is the optimal choice for the rural scenario, especially for a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) lower than 25 dB. However, in urban environments characterized by higher SNR values and moderately dense networks, NB-PLC gains prominence. In denser networks, it outperforms wireless communication, exhibiting a remarkable 10 dB gain for a bit error rate (BER) of 10⁻³. Moreover, in industrial zones characterized by intricate network topologies and non-linear loads, the power line channel emerges as the optimal choice for data transmission. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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19 pages, 1808 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Industrial PLC Network Modeling and Parameter Identification Using Sensitivity Analysis and Mean Field Variational Inference

by Raelynn Wonnacott, David S. Ching, John Chilleri, Cosmin Safta, Lee Rashkin and Thomas A. Reichardt

Sensors 2023, 23(5), 2416; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23052416 - 22 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1286

Abstract

A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) power line communication (PLC) model for industrial facilities was developed that uses the physics of a bottom-up model but can be calibrated like top-down models. The PLC model considers 4-conductor cables (three-phase conductors and a ground conductor) and has several load types, including motor loads. The model is calibrated to data using mean field variational inference with a sensitivity analysis to reduce the parameter space. The results show that the inference method can accurately identify many of the model parameters, and the model is accurate even when the network is modified. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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24 pages, 2264 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Lithium-Ion Battery State of Charge on In Situ QAM-Based Power Line Communication

by Mahyar J. Koshkouei, Erik Kampert, Andrew D. Moore and Matthew D. Higgins

Sensors 2022, 22(16), 6144; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22166144 - 17 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1737

Abstract

Power line communication within a lithium-ion battery allows for high fidelity sensor data to be transferred between sensor nodes of each instrumented cell within the battery pack to an external battery management system. In this paper, the changing characteristics of the lithium-ion cell at various states of charge are measured, analysed, and compared to understand their effectiveness on the communication channel of a power line communication system for carrier frequencies of 10 MHz to 6 GHz. Moreover, the use of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is investigated to determine its effectiveness as a state-of-the-art modulation method for the same carrier frequency range. The overall results indicate that certain carrier frequencies and QAM orders may not be suitable for the in situ battery pack power line communication due to changes in battery impedance with certain lithium-ion cell states of charge, which cause an increase in error vector magnitude, bit error ratio, and symbol error ratio. Recommendations and trends on the impact of these changing characteristics based upon empirical results are also presented in this paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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19 pages, 1571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Power Line Communication and Sensing Using Time Series Forecasting

by Yinjia Huo, Gautham Prasad, Lutz Lampe and Victor Leung

Sensors 2022, 22(14), 5320; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22145320 - 16 Jul 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1516

Abstract

Smart electrical grids rely on data communication to support their operation and on sensing for diagnostics and maintenance. Usually, the roles of communication and sensing equipment are different, i.e., communication equipment does not participate in sensing tasks and vice versa. Power line communication (PLC) offers a cost-effective solution for joint communication and sensing for smart grids. This is because the high-frequency PLC signals used for data communication also reveal detailed information regarding the health of the power lines that they travel through. Traditional PLC-based power line or cable diagnostic solutions are dependent on prior knowledge of the cable type, network topology, and/or characteristics of the anomalies. In this paper, we develop a power line sensing technique that can detect various types of cable anomalies without any prior domain knowledge. To this end, we design a solution that first uses time-series forecasting to predict the PLC channel state information at any given point in time based on its historical data. Under the approximation that the prediction error follows a Gaussian distribution, we then perform chi-squared statistical test to build an anomaly detector which identifies the occurrence of a cable fault. We demonstrate the effectiveness and universality of our sensing solution via evaluations conducted using both synthetic and real-world data extracted from low- and medium-voltage distribution networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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15 pages, 1302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Power Line Communication with Robust Timing and Carrier Recovery against Narrowband Interference for Smart Grid

by Sicong Liu, Fang Yang, Dejian Li, Ruilong Yao and Jian Song

Sensors 2022, 22(11), 4013; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22114013 - 25 May 2022

Viewed by 1597

Abstract

Power line communication (PLC) is an important interconnection technology for the smart grid, but the robustness of PLC transmission is faced with a great challenge due to strong non-Gaussian noise and interference. In this paper, a narrowband interference (NBI) resistant preamble is designed, and an effective timing and frequency synchronization method is proposed for OFDM-based PLC systems in the smart grid, which is capable of simultaneously conveying some bits of transmission parameter signaling (TPS) as well. In the time domain, the cyclic extension of the training OFDM symbol is scrambled, which makes it feasible to combat against NBI contamination. More accurate timing detection and sharper correlation peak can be implemented under the power line channel and the AWGN channel in the presence of NBI, compared with the conventional Schmidl’s and Minn’s methods with the same preamble length. Furthermore, the TPS transmitted using the proposed method is also immune from the NBI. The proposed method is capable of improving the synchronization performance of the PLC transmission significantly, which is verified by theoretical analysis and computer simulations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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17 pages, 5616 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Li-Ion Battery on System’s Overall Impedance and Received Signal Strength for Power Line Communication (PLC)

by Vlad Marsic, Tazdin Amietszajew, Christopher Gardner, Petar Igic, Soroush Faramehr and Joe Fleming

Sensors 2022, 22(7), 2634; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22072634 - 29 Mar 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2200

Abstract

In anticipation of the hybrid utilisation of the radio frequency (RF) wireless transceiver technology embedded in future smart Li-ion battery cells to deliver hybrid links based on power line communication (PLC) and wireless connections, herein we present an empirical high-frequency investigation of the direct current (DC) bus. The focus is to determine, via statistical tools including correlation coefficient (CC), root mean squared error (RMSE) and feature selective validation (FSV) method, the impedance and signal change impact on a possible communication link when fully charged cells are present or completely missing from the bus. Moreover, to establish if technological differences may be accounted for during the empirical experiments, Li-ion cells from two different manufacturers were selected and connected via three subsequent capacitive couplings of 1 µF, 1 nF and 1 pF. According to a methodical comparison by employing CC, RMSE, and FSV over the measured impedance and signal attenuation, this study has shown that the physical DC network is the dominant impedance at high frequencies and that the signal attenuation on the DC line supports communication in the investigated spectrum. The reported findings are critical for in situ hybrid PLC and wireless communication implementation of BMS for Li-ion systems supported through only one RF transceiver. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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13 pages, 3087 KiB

Open AccessArticle

DC Power Line Communication (PLC) on 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz Wired RF Transceivers

by Vlad Marsic, Tazdin Amietszajew, Petar Igic, Soroush Faramehr and Joe Fleming

Sensors 2022, 22(5), 2043; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22052043 - 05 Mar 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3713

Abstract

Efficient management through monitoring of Li-ion batteries is critical to the progress of electro-mobility and energy storage globally, since the technology can be hazardous if pushed beyond its safety boundaries. Battery management systems (BMSs) are being actively improved to reduce size, weight, and cost while increasing their capabilities. Using power line communication, wireless monitoring, or hybrid data links are one of the most advanced research directions today. In this work, we propose the use of radio frequency (RF) transceivers as a communication unit that can deliver both wired and wireless services, through their superior analog and digital signal processing capability compared to PLC technology. To validate our approach computational simulation and empirical evaluation was conducted to examine the possibility of using RF transceivers on a direct current (DC) bus for wired BMS. A key advantage of this study is that it proposes a flexible and tested system for communication across a variety of network scenarios, where wireless data links over disrupted connections may be enabled by using this technology in short-range wired modes. This investigation demonstrates that the IEEE 802.15.4-compliant transceivers with operating frequencies of 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz can establish stable data links on a DC bus via capacitive coupling at high data rates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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12 pages, 4322 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wireless Communication Test on 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz from inside the 18650 Li-Ion Enclosed Metal Shell

by Vlad Marsic, Tazdin Amietszajew, Petar Igic, Soroush Faramehr and Joe Fleming

Sensors 2022, 22(5), 1966; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22051966 - 02 Mar 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2846

Abstract

As the RF communication on 18650 Li-ion cell level has not been reported due to its challenges and constrains, in this work, a valid wireless data link is demonstrated in an enclosed empty metal shell at 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The experimental tests are carried out using two generic unturned radiative structures, a wire loop fitted inside a cell shell, and an open terminal sub miniature version A (SMA), subsequently oriented vertically and horizontally relative to the ground plane. Based on signal strength indicator, bit error rate, and packet error rate, the test characterized a payload of 120 bytes at the highest speed of 150 kbps and 250 kbps supported by the IEEE 802.15.4 for the two communication frequencies. A MATLAB simulation is used in parallel to determine the three-dimensional radiative pattern of the two structures, whereas a three-ray model for multipath range propagation is implemented to complete the empirical experiments. It was demonstrated through testing communication of up to 10 m for both operating frequencies, proving the concept of wireless cell communication within short ranges, an essential feature for monitoring the health of each cell inside future electric vehicles (EVs). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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14 pages, 6242 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Surface-Integrated Electric Field Sensor for the Detection of High-Voltage Power Lines

by Gunbok Lee, Jeong-Yeon Kim, Gildong Kim and Jae Hee Kim

Sensors 2021, 21(24), 8327; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s21248327 - 13 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3662

Abstract

When a drone is used for inspection of facilities, there are often cases in which high-voltage power lines interfere, resulting in the drone being caught or falling. To prevent this type of incident, drones must be capable of detecting high-voltage power lines. Typically, a strong electric field is formed around the high-voltage lines. To detect the electric fields around high-voltage lines, this study proposes an electric field sensor that may be integrated within the body of a drone. In a laboratory environment, a voltage of 25 kV was applied to an overhead line, and the induced voltage in the proposed sensor was measured at various electric field intensities. Over an electric field range of 0.5 to 10.1 kV/m, a voltage of 0 to 0.77 V was measured with each proposed sensor. In addition, the electric field and the voltage induced in the sensor were measured in a real-world railway environment with overhead lines. Under these conditions, the proposed sensor has the compensated value of 4.5 when the measured electric field was 4.05 kV/m. Therefore, the proposed sensor may be applied in drones to measure large electric fields and to detect the presence of high-voltage lines in its vicinity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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Review

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34 pages, 1349 KiB

Open AccessReview

Upgrading the Power Grid Functionalities with Broadband Power Line Communications: Basis, Applications, Current Trends and Challenges

by Jon González-Ramos, Noelia Uribe-Pérez, Alberto Sendin, David Gil, David de la Vega, Igor Fernández and Ignacio Javier Núñez

Sensors 2022, 22(12), 4348; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22124348 - 08 Jun 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2311

Abstract

This article reviews the basis and the main aspects of the recent evolution of Broadband Power Line Communications (BB-PLC or, more commonly, BPL) technologies. The article starts describing the organizations and alliances involved in the development and evolution of BPL systems, as well as the standardization institutions working on PLC technologies. Then, a short description of the technical foundation of the recent proposed technologies and a comparison of the main specifications are presented; the regulatory activities related to the limits of emissions and immunity are also addressed. Finally, some representative applications of BPL and some selected use cases enabled by these technologies are summarized, together with the main challenges to be faced. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Line Communication Technologies for Smart Grids)

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