POWER LINE COMMUNICATION

Power Line Communication (PLC) is a communication technology that enables sending data
over existing power cables. This means that, with just power cables running to an electronic
device (for example) one can both power it up and at the same time control/retrieve data from it
in a half-duplex manner.

PLC Market: Overview

Segments

For the purpose of understanding, PLC can be broadly viewed as:

1. Narrowband PLC

2. Broadband PLC

Narrowband PLC works at lower frequencies (3-500 kHz), lower data rates (up to 100s of kbps),
and has longer range (up to several kilometers), which can be extended using repeaters.
Broadband PLC works at higher frequencies (1.8-250 MHz), high data rates (up to 100s of
Mbps) and is used in shorter-range applications.

Recently, narrowband Power Line Communication has been receiving widespread attention due
to its applications in the Smart Grid. Another application that narrowband PLC has been used in
is smart energy generation, particularly in micro-inverters for solar panels.

Broadband PLC, in contrast, has mainly found acceptance as a last-mile solution for Internet
distribution and home networking. With its high data rates and no additional wiring, broadband
PLC is seen as an exciting and effective technology for multimedia distribution within homes.
This optimism in the market is reflected by the recent acquisitions of Intellon by Atheros,
Coppergate by Sigma, DS2 by Marvell, and Gigle by Broadcom, all in the Home Area
Networking (HAN) segment.

There is another way to classify Power Line Communication and that is:

1. PLC over AC lines

2. PLC over DC lines
While most companies are currently geared towards providing AC-PLC solutions, PLC in DC
lines also has applications. Two such applications are PLC over the DC-bus in distributed energy
generation, and PLC in transportation (electronic controls in airplanes, automobiles and trains).
This use reduces wiring complexity, weight, and ultimately cost of communications inside
vehicles. However, in this article, we will be dealing mostly with narrowband PLC over AC
lines.
Competition

The narrowband PLC market is seeing healthy competition, with a large number of PLC
suppliers joining the fray, including:
1. Cypress Semiconductor 6. Maxim
2. Echelon 7. Semitech Semiconductor
3. ST Microelectronics 8. Ariane Controls
4. Yitran 9. ADD Semiconductor
5. Texas Instruments 10. Microchip
Companies in the broadband PLC segment include:
1. Atheros
2. Sigma
3. Marvell
4. Broadcom
5. Lantiq
6. Maxim
7. Plugtek

PLC Technology: How does it work?

PLC is like any other communication technology whereby a sender modulates the data to be sent,
injects it onto medium, and the receiver de-modulates the data to read it. The major difference is
that PLC does not need extra cabling, it re-uses existing wiring. Considering the pervasiveness of
power lines, this means with PLC, virtually all line- powered devices can be controlled or
monitored!

When discussing communication technology, it is often useful to refer to the 7-layer OSI model.
Some PLC chips can implement only the Physical Layer of the OSI model, while others integrate
all seven layers. One could use a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with a pure software realization
of the MAC and an external PHY circuit, or an optimized System-on-Chip (SoC) solution, which
includes the complete PLC – MAC and PHY. The Cypress CY8CPLCXX series is an example of
the latter, with a ready-to-use Physical and Network layer, and a user-programmable application
layer. Before moving on to the applications of PLC, let’s first understand the various aspects of
the Physical layer by viewing it as three segments on the basis of data rate.
Modulation Schemes

A variety of modulation schemes can be used in PLC. Some of these are Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK), Spread-FSK (S-FSK) and proprietary schemes too (for example Differential Code Shift
Keying (DCSK) from Yitran). In the table below, BPSK, FSK, SFSK and OFDM are compared
on the basis of two important criteria – bandwidth efficiency and complexity (cost).

OFDM in particular offers high data rates, but requires computational horsepower to churn out
Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) and Inverse-FFT (IFFT), as required by the scheme. On the other
hand, BPSK, FSK are robust and simple but offer lower data rates. The current trend is to move
towards OFDM with PSK modulation (G3 and probably P1901.2). Such heavy computation will
require DSP capability, whereas FSK, PSK and SFSK can be accomplished by a microcontroller.

Standards

Various standards have been developed in order to ensure reliable communications and inter-
operability, especially for the smart grid and home networking. Examples of such standards are:

These, along with the organizations that govern them like CENELEC, FCC, ARIB, Homeplug
Power Alliance specify ranges for operation of PLC. If a worldwide standard for PLC were to be
established, this would have a positive impact on adoption of PLC. So far, the G3-PLC standard
is touted as the most robust scheme available, and the IEEE 1901.2 working group is committed
to developing a universally acceptable standard.
Frequencies

Different regions of the world have different frequency bands allocated to narrowband PLC. The
table below summarizes the different frequencies available for narrowband PLC communication
in the respective region.

Where:

CENELEC - European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization.

ARIB – Association of Radio Industries & Businesses
EPRI – Electric Power Research Institute
FCC – Federal Communications Commission

APPLICATIONS

Earlier, we saw that PLC is widely used in the Smart Grid and in micro-inverters. As the market
gets familiar with this technology, PLC should see wider adoption in other applications like
lighting (e.g. traffic light control, LED dimming), industrial (e.g. UPS communicating to a
network device, irrigation control), machine-to-machine (e.g. vending machines, a hotel’s
reception-to-room communication), telemetry (e.g. offshore oil rigs), transport (e.g. Electronics
in cars, trains and airplanes) and indeed, applications of PLC are only limited by one’s creativity.
In this article, we will find out a little more about PLC in energy generation and conservation
markets.

Energy Generation and Consumption:

Today, Smart Energy has become a much-publicized buzzword. It could describe anything from
energy production, to efficient use of that energy. As we will shortly see, PLC plays a vital role
in making our energy practices ‘smart’.

PLC in Energy Generation

Renewable energy is growing at a brisk rate, having showcased a growth of 35.2% in 2010. A
bulk of this growth came from a near doubling of Photovoltaic (PV) installations around the
world. Further contribution came from increase of installed wind energy capacity; for instance in
2010 China grew its installed capacity by 64%.
In order for a Distributed Generation (DG) system to supply the grid power, its DC output must
be converted by an inverter into clean, reliable AC power. Thus a typical DG system consists of
the Energy production device (for e.g. the solar panel, the wind turbine, an electric vehicle), the
inverter, the cabling and the communications. If we consider the specific case of solar power
generation, until recently, most PV installations used central inverters or string inverters, in
which case the performance of the system could be monitored with a few say, Ethernet
connections to the inverters.

Today, there is a growing trend towards micro-inverters and power optimizers. These function at
an individual solar panel level, and most suppliers provide monitoring capability for each of
these modules. This provides vital performance statistics over the lifetime of the solar panel, and
this can be used to detect and pinpoint performance issues. To implement such monitoring
capability, one could use wireless – Zigbee, Wi- Fi, RF, and Bluetooth; or wired – PLC, RS-485,
RS-232, and Ethernet, among others. In the case of micro-inverters, the implementation of a
wireless solution can be challenging because of:

* Its line of sight requirement – micro-inverters are generally located behind a solar panel
* More complicated installation
* EMI problems
Alternatively, other wired technologies involve extra cabling and thus greater installation and
maintenance costs. PLC can be both simpler and more economical.
Above we see the typical building blocks of a micro-inverter. The CY8CPLCxx chip, complete
with PHY, network protocol and programmable application layer, has additional resources that
allow for taking external sensor input. Thus vital parameters like temperature at each module,
maximum power point, potential faults, and power generated can be monitored. Through the
power line, these statistics can be viewed locally on an LCD display, or even remotely via the
web. In case of faults, each micro-inverter can be switched off individually. Under-performing
units can be repaired or replaced. Importantly, with PLC, installation and maintenance is simple
and economical because of no additional sockets/wiring required – just plug and play. From the
point of view of an equipment manufacturer, designing PLC into the system is straightforward
because of Cypress’ certified and tested reference designs.

PLC in Energy Consumption markets

It is estimated by 2020, Europe will have 80% coverage of smart meters and the rest of the
world is expected soon to follow suit. PLC is the predominant communication method in
Automatic Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and also is being rapidly adopted in other applications.
In this section, we will discuss the energy consumption market from two perspectives, namely:

Auxiliary Interface

 Smart Grid – AMI, Smart Appliances and V2G

 Other applications – Two examples will be discussed here –Data center power
distribution and Lighting control.

Smart Grid

Mr. Carnegie, waiting for his flight at the San Francisco international airport, browses through
his inbox on his smart phone, when he receives a mail from the local energy provider informing
him about peak pricing coming into effect in the next four hours, back home in Dallas. He knows
that his Air Conditioning will turn off automatically during this time. Knowing the electricity
rates at this hour, he decides to check up on his solar panels by just a touch on his smart phone
screen. While this may seem to be science fiction, smart grids, empowered by PLC solutions, are
making it a reality.

The ‘Smart Grid’ is essentially modernization of the transmission and distribution aspects of the
electrical grid. This intelligent power distribution infrastructure enables two-way communication
between the consumers and the utility. The consumers use home networks to communicate with
their smart meter, which further communicates with the utility (Advanced Metering
Infrastructure-AMI). The Smart Grid definition does not stop at energy utilization; supply of
energy to the grid from Distributed Generation (DG) sources such as solar and wind fall into the
same category. The DG system also includes Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) - bi-directional sharing of
electricity between Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Electric Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs) and
the electric power grid. In this article, we will talk about AMI, Smart Appliances and V2G.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure:

The whole measurement and collection system that includes meters at the customer site,
communication networks between the customer and a service provider, such as an electric, gas,
or water utility, and data reception and management systems, that make the information available
to the service provider, are referred to as AMI. The Smart Meters transmit the collected data
through commonly available fixed networks such as Power Line Communications (PLC), Fixed
Radio Frequency (RF) networks, and public networks (e.g. landline, cellular, paging) which is
aggregated by a concentrator, sent to the utility and then to a Meter Data Management System
for data storage, analysis and billing (see Figure 3). Studies show that Narrowband PLC is best
suited for AMI with over a 100 million NB-PLC devices installed to date.

Utilities are investing billions of dollars in AMI systems. PLC solution for data transmission
needs no new infrastructure, unlike wireless, as it uses the existing power cables. Power line
carrier systems have long been a favorite at many utilities because it allows them to reliably
move data over an infrastructure that they control. Utilities may also use public cellular as the
backhaul for the AMI data due to its footprint, zero implementation cost and low monthly fee.
But on many occasions they may not be able to provide 100 percent coverage of a utility’s entire
customer base.

Alternatively, using wireless networks, RF solutions or PLC for data transmission will solve this
issue. Rural utilities or the utilities located at challenging locations (for e.g. mountainous
terrains) which are ill-served by wireless will have a difficulty communicating with the
consumers. Additionally, wireless and RF solutions have reduced data rates in presence of
interference like Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, concrete objects, hills and even trees. PLC
can communicate to any location connected via the power line and has no line-of-sight
requirement for data transmission. One of the most important considerations, due to the volume
of network traffic inherent to the smart grid network, is congestion mitigation. As compared to
wireless solutions based on ZigBee or Wi-Fi, PLC-based AMI have a proven track record of
being better suited to avoid network congestion in emergency situations. Another oft cited
requirement is that of redundancy in the communication channel – with the ubiquity of power
lines, deploying a redundant channel becomes more economical.

Various applications would include remote monitoring, outage management (which includes
fault detection of MV equipment), Demand Response (i.e. managing customer consumption of
electricity in response to grid supply conditions), island detection (i.e. ensuring that local grids
are not being powered by the DG system when there is no power present from the electric grid)
and fraud/theft detection.

Smart Appliances:

A Home Area Network (HAN) is a communication-enabled home where all electrical appliances
are connected in a mesh through Wireless, RF or PLC. Electrical appliances, today, are
connected in a network with two-way communication enabled, with each other as well as the
substation. These Smart Appliances allow automation and control from single or multiple access
points.
 In the chart above (See Figure 5) you will observe the estimated revenues (US $M) in 2011
made by Smart Appliances (Source: Zpryme Research & Consulting) and is projected to grow
with a CAGR of 49% from 2011 to 2015.This gives an insight to the potential that this industry
holds.

Talking about applications, PLC has made Load Control a reality in many EU Countries. Home
appliances like washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, oven and stove, refrigerator, freezer, air
conditioner and water heater, talk to the Smart Meter, (Refer to previous section for details)
which gathers information of peak pricing hours from the utility through PLC. The appliances
can then switch OFF/ON according to the price variations. This is a win-win situation for the
consumer who saves on the electricity bill, and the utility, which can better manage peak
demands. PLC also enables appliance monitoring and HVAC control – leading to further energy
awareness and savings.

Home automation potentially focuses on the following applications:

* Lighting
* Appliance/Device Diagnostics and Monitoring
* Security Access
* AMI
* Home health monitoring

In the figure above (Figure 6), the sensors on the appliance side are connected to the Monitor via
the Power Line. Any changes on the appliance end will be reflected on the LCD Display, which
can be viewed and changed as required. Consumers will literally have control of their entire
house at their fingertips.

PLC is a considerably more effective in home networks. HAN being realized by

Wireless/Zigbee, will need new infrastructure to be installed. Moreover, penetrating physical
barriers like walls within one floor, or reaching out to different floors is a challenge for Wireless.
Wireless networks often face performance issues, like mentioned in the previous section, due to
RF interference caused by devices like microwave oven, cordless phones or even Bluetooth
devices at home. PLC on the other hand can reach out to every node connected via the power
line. It converts virtually every socket in one?s home into an access point, in many ways
incorporating the best of wired and wireless communication.

Vehicle-to-Grid Communication:

Plug in electric vehicles (BEV?s and PHEV?s) communicate with the power grid, both, to charge
itself and to deliver electricity into the grid. Different versions of V2G would include a Fuel-cell
vehicle, a battery powered vehicle or a solar vehicle. In all cases, the vehicle provides power to
the grid at peak load conditions and charges itself at night, when the demand is low. A variety of
data like vehicle identification, current battery status, maximum allowed charge current and
number of phases, charging times (e.g. delayed charging start) and overall 'charged' electricity
amount with associated costs is needs to be exchanged with the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply
Equipment).

PLC has a distinct advantage here because an unambiguous physical association between the
vehicle and a specific EVSE can be established - this aids in authentication and security. This is
clearly something that is not possible to accomplish with wireless solutions even if short range.
PLC further connects the EVSE to the meter and the smart grid. This technology is still in its
infancy with no existing standards but promises to be an exciting trend to watch out for in the
next decade.

Other Applications

In order to give readers a glimpse of the enormous potential of PLC in the energy consumption
market, 2 applications will be dealt with in detail. PLC in data center power distribution
networks, and PLC in Lighting.

Smart Power in Data Centers:

The Problem: With the rise of cloud computing and internet services, data centers and
collocation facilities continue to show consistent double digit growth. Data center downtime is
completely unacceptable due to loss of revenue and reputation that it causes. Such downtime is
primarily caused by UPS battery failure, UPS overloading, and circuit breaker failure. Another
critical concern for data centers is energy efficiency of devices because of rising unit electricity
costs and additional cooling costs. Simultaneously, companies who outsource their computing
requirements want access to all performance metrics of their systems including power at various
levels. Adding communication between devices is a challenge, because wireless cannot work
reliably in the data center environment while wired communication would exacerbate the
problem of cable clutter.

Consider traditional power distribution architecture in a data center – a

highly simplified diagram is shown below for the purpose of
understanding:
 AC supply from the grid first flows through the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), then the
Power Distribution Unit (PDU), then converted to DC power at the Power Supply Unit (PSU)
and then finally to a Server, Switch, Network storage device or in general, a network device. In
such configurations with redundant power provisioning, UPS load rarely exceeds 30% of its
rated capacity. This is largely because the power topology down-stream from a UPS is not
clearly visible at the UPS – it is difficult to trace which/how many Network Devices are
connected to that UPS. Shown below is the
typical efficiency curve for a UPS.

In order to avoid costly downtime due to

overloading, the data center would prefer to
over-design the system – operate the UPS at
low loads, at the cost of energy efficiency.
From the above curve, it is evident that the
UPS is not working in its most efficient range.

The solution: Now consider a PLC-enabled system as below. The UPS, PDU, PSU and Network
devices can communicate with each other via PLC. Consequently, at every stage in the power
distribution, the device will have a clear map of power topology downstream and upstream from
it. For ex. UPS 1 ‘knows’ that it provides power to PSU 1 of Network device 1 and 2. Now, since
the devices connected to it are visible, their power requirements are known precisely, and hence
the load of the UPS can be safely increased to an optimum level.
 Thanks to PLC, UPS overloading, battery failure and circuit breaker failure will be reduced, or
diagnosed prior to downtime. Thus, introducing PLC in such power distribution architectures
will not only increase efficiency of the system, but provide many other benefits including ease of
diagnostics and redundancy in communication for mission critical data centers. And all this,
without the messy wiring that data centers dread.

LED Control:

One of the predictions for the energy sector in the next decade is the gradual phasing out of
incandescent bulbs and their replacement by LEDs. LEDs offer an advantage over both CFLs
and incandescent bulbs in being fully dimmable, having a longer lifetime, being mercury free,
and providing options for adjustable color temperature.

The problem:

Take for example, the case of street lighting. A city spends 30-40% of its budget on illuminating
the city. The old system of street lighting makes no provision for dimming of lights, color
temperature control or intelligent switching. Moreover, workers are hired for maintenance patrol
– i.e. detecting and reporting failed street lights. Very often, streetlights are repaired after
complaints are lodged. Millions of dollars could be saved and millions of tons of carbon
emissions could be reduced with minor adaption in the streetlight usage pattern.

The solution:

Now consider a street lighting system which is PLC enabled – say, every LED street light has a
PLC device mounted on it. This would allow for monitoring and control of each streetlight. The
advantages of such a system are numerous.

* According to time, traffic, weather and other factors, the street lights can be turned
off/dimmed as optimally as possible. This could generate energy and cost savings in excess of
40% - a huge number for any city. A corresponding reduction in carbon emissions is results –
thus helping cities comply with Kyoto protocol guidelines. Additionally, dimming will increase
the lifespan of the LED lamps – thus providing another benefit.

* Lamps, which reach the end of their life cycle can be replaced before they fail, with reduced
maintenance costs.

* Information of mortality cycle, energy consumption and other factors can be sent to the remote
monitoring site – and this used to diagnose problems.

* With the appropriate solution, color temperature of the streetlights can be dynamically adjusted
– providing better aesthetics and safety.

* Moreover, all this is done with no additional wiring, no need to dig up roads or build towers –
PLC is the most suitable and affordable solution for such an application.
 Above is a block diagram of such a PLC
solution specifically tailored for High
Brightness (HB) LED control. Cypress? PLC
Solution provides a Powerline optimized
Network Protocol, which enables individual
lighting fixtures or groups of lighting fixtures
to be controlled using the existing Powerline
infrastructure. Combined with Cypress? EZ-
Color solution this can be used for intelligent
dimming and timed turn-off of HB-LED
fixtures.

CHALLENGES

PLC, of course has its challenges. Firstly, Power lines were not designed to carry data, and
actually behave as low pass filters. Modeling the PL channel is difficult – it is a very harsh and
noisy transmission medium, frequency-selective, time varying, and is impaired by colored
background noise and impulsive noise. Thus maintaining signal integrity over power lines
requires robust signaling techniques and hardware. Secondly, the structure of the grid differs
across and within countries and the same applies for indoor wiring practices. There is no
universal standard either for PLC or the grid; steps to ensure interoperability of devices need to
be taken. Thirdly, questions are being raised today about the digital security of personal
information that is sent over the power lines because these can be tapped into. Thus establishing
privacy safeguards and equally important - convincing the public of these is another large-level
issue that is being addressed. Lastly, PLC faces competition from other means of communication
- both wired and wireless, and ultimately the choice of technology will be decided by a mix of
cost, complexity, and feasibility. Today, the major competing technologies to narrowband PLC
are Zigbee, Wi-Fi, GPRS and RS-232.

CONCLUSION

In the above article, we introduced Power Line Communication, both as a technology and as a
market. The various types of PLC, modulation schemes, standards, and frequencies in use today
were discussed. Finally, we presented the various applications of PLC –in energy generation, the
smart grid, data-center power distribution networks, and, in LED lighting. Finally, the challenges
of PLC were briefly emphasized.

We have seen how, in its current applications, PLC has added intelligence into previously
„dumb? power networks. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the increased emphasis on
developing PLC technology and standards, we can be confident that in the future, Power Line
Communication will continue adding smartness to our lines.