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U
unique customer code and sent to a central receiver located in
tilizing power network for data transmission is not a
the distribution transformer[9]. The system deploys Direct Se-
new idea [1]-[3]. It started as early as the beginning
quence Spread Spectrum DSSS modulation technique working
of the last century with the wave of full coverage
in the frequency range defined by CENELEC standard Band A
electrification. Although power line communication systems
form 9KHz to 95KHz [5], [10].
are getting more and more interest, their performance espe- Complex tree of Customer
cially in long distance AMR applications is sill subject of Loads
doubt[4]. The performance of any PLC system is found to be
heavily depending on time, location and power network wiring
topology. Distribution transformers heavily attenuate high fre-
quency signals beyond several kilo hertz and hence form the
communication point of view, the low tension network is di- PLC Receiver & PLC
1234
vided into isolated islands or cells concentrated on each distri- Data Concentrator Transmitter
bution transformer. Communication signaling can only be im- KWH Meter
plemented within the area serviced by one transformer [10]. Customer
Dist. Transformer Entry Point
The first known patent on power line signaling was proposed
in 1897 in the United Kingdom [8]. In such systems com-
Main Feeder
mands of load shading are broadcasted for a central generation
point to meters. In Automatic Meter Reading systems the in- 1 1
formation emerges from different meters and required to be
collected at central location in the reverse direction[9], [6].
Home appliance manufacturers are continuously developing
Feeding other customers
and producing new instruments with less regard to communi-
cation signaling issues. On the other hand especially in the de- Figure 1: ARSEL PLC based AMR System
veloping counties, Arial lines are still heavily used in the LV
The generated PLC signal is coupled to the line at the prem-
grid. This environment negatively affects the quality and reli-
ises entry point through a special coupling circuit designed to
ability of any communication system and thus creating a
block the line frequency meanwhile passing the higher fre-
harsh, hostile and horrible channel as described in several pa-
pers.
1
EOIP Engineering Office for Integrated Projects an R&D house in Egypt
involved in several communication projects serving the utility companies.
634
quency communication signals [10]. Since its generation The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition SCADA sys-
within the transmitter circuit, the signal experience the cou- tem shown in Figure 2 is utilized to capture and record the
pling circuit power and cable network characteristics in addi- current trends over several days through a complex communi-
tion it is contaminated by noise. Finally, the receiver has to ex- cation network. MV currents are monitored by the outgoing
tract the transmitted information carried by the weekend and protection digital relays meanwhile the LV side is monitored
distorted signal that is completely embedded in noise. So, we by a special Transformer Inelegant Module TIM built for this
can deduce the three factors almost influencing any PLC sys- purpose.
tem as follows
A. Access Impedance
PLC devices directly drive the mains terminals and are re- Medium Voltage 11 Kv
quired to deliver sufficient signaling power depending on the Protection and
monitoring
required coverage range. The lumped element equivalent im- Relay
pedance of the power network seen across the coupling circuit
terminals is known as Access Impedance and in general is a
function of the frequency [10]. Access impedance shunts the SCADA
power amplifier and its coupling circuit and hence it deter- System Low Voltage
distribution
mines the injected signal power. Every load or appliance con- Transformer
nected to the mains contributes to this access impedance. Un-
Transformer
fortunately, these loads are not fixed but continuously chang- Intelligent
Low Voltage 0.4 Kv
ing in random patterns resulting in time varying channel re- Module
sponse.
LV Grid
B. PLC channel
Along its path form Transmitter to Receiver, the signal en- Figure 2: SCADA System Block Diagram
counters several impedance discontinuities[1]-[3]. It may tra-
vel across different cable types and may encounter branching
or even couple across phases. Such discontinuities introduce 70
635
70 500.00
60 450.00
80
60
50
40
30 180
FeederCurrentA
Access Impedance(Ohm)
10 140
FeederCurrentC
120
0
3/25 3/26 3/26 3/26 3/26 3/26 3/27 3/27 100
19:12 0:00 4:48 9:36 14:24 19:12 0:00 4:48
80
(b)
60
20
0
3/25 3/26 3/26 3/26 3/26 3/26 3/27 3/27
B. Access Impedance near the Power Frequency 19:12 0:00 4:48 9:36 14:24 19:12 0:00 4:48
636
Sweep sinusoidal transmitter
Signal conditioning and capturing
Current
Sweep Sensing To the Mains
Generator
Coupling & Anti Aliasing Data PC (off line
Transmit Line
Power protection LPF Filter (fc Acquisition spectral
Coupling
Amplifier Capacitor Receive Circuit <100KHz) analysis)
Coupling &
BPF
10
1.5
8
Ohm
6 1
4
2 0.5
Voltage
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0
Frequency (KHz)
-0.5
Figure 8: Access impedance (10-100 KHz)
-1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Figure 8 shows one sample of the measurement indicating im- Time (ms)
pedance values ranging from 2 to 10 ohms with frequencies up Figure 10: Power line noise sample
to 100 KHz. Such relatively low value must be taken into con-
sideration in designing the PLC Power Amplifier, Power Sup-
ply and coupling circuits. A closer look at one of the large periodic impulses penetrated
throughout the entire sample is shown in Figure 11. The im-
D. Noise Measurements pulses usually take the shape of a damped oscillation spanning
about 1 ms and a peak voltage of 1 volt. The origin of these
As the Signal to Noise Ratio SNR is the figure of merit for any impulses is referred to different types of switching and spark-
communication system, we implemented several noise meas- ing loads like motors dimmers and different types of home ap-
urements in the system transmission band. pliances.
637
1.5 20
0.5 -1 0
-2 0
0
-3 0
-0.5
-4 0
-5 0
-1 0 2 4 6 8 10
51 52 53 54 55 F re qu e n cy H z
Ti me ( ms ) (a)
4
20
Hi gh PSD porti on of the -1 0
Col ored Background noi se
10
P ow er Spectrum Magni tude (dB )
-5 0
-30 0 2 4 6 8 10
F re qu e n cy H z
4
(b)
-40
Figure 13: PSD of a power line noise sample, Cairo, August 2001, 3.00
-50 PM, Phase 2,3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency (Hz) x 10
4
Figure 12: PSD of the power line noise sample, Cairo, August 0
P ow er Spectrum Magni tude (dB )
-5
nificance of using such band for signaling. Focusing on the Frequency (Hz)
low range below 10 KHz shown in
Figure 14, reveals that, the major components contributing to Figure 14: Background noise details showing the line harmonics
the noise in this band is the line related harmonics. below 10 KHz
638
E. Field Measurements Hence, the performance of any PLC regarding, coverage range
and even the signaling reliability is expected to be dimen-
sioned and vice versa. The network cable construction espe-
cially cable types, pillar boxes branching, mixing between dif-
Buried Cable Section
Buried, Aerial Cable or Overhead Lines
ferent types of cables introduces rich impedance mismatch
Virtual Zoning lines opportunities in addition to different number of customers re-
sulting in different system performance for each LV Island.
Zone 1
Outgoing 380V
HV/LV
Distribution Acknowledgement
Transformer
Incoming 11KV
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VI. BIOGRAPHIES Tamer A. Kawady (M02) was born in Shebin El-kom,
Egypt on Sept. 30, 1972. He received his B.Sc. (honors) and
M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering, Menoufiya Univer-
Yasser Fathi was born in Fayoum Egypt on Mars, 20, sity, Egypt, Ph.D. degree (excellent) from Technical Univer-
1971. He received his B.Sc M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engi- sity Darmstadt, Germany in 1995, 1999 and 2005 respec-
neering, Cairo University, Egypt in 1993 and 2004 respec- tively. Dr. Kawady is currently an assistant professor at
tively. He is now Technical Manager of the hardware depart- Menoufiya University, Egypt since April 2005. His interests
ment and a technical consultant of several projects developed are in digital protection, Power system simulation using the Electromagnetic
in Engineering Office for Integrated Projects EOIP Since his Transient Program (EMTP) and Artificial Intelligence applications to power
graduation in 1993 he designed several Communication, Control and Data Ac- system protection.
quisition systems He implemented several modems utilizing several modula-
tion techniques (DSSS, M-FSK, MSK and ASK) in different frequency bands
and channels Through his work, he introduced the second generation of EOIP
Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system through the Power Line Channel that
reached the mass production level and covered about 60,000 customer premises Mohammed Z.Elgeziry was born in Elbagour, Egypt on
in several governorates in Egypt. Eventually, this system resulted in 3 patents Mars, 13, 1981. He received his B.Sc. degrees in Electrical
and fulfilled his M.Sc. degree in 2004. Engineering, Menoufiya University, Egypt in 2002. He is
working currently towards M.Sc. degree. His interests are in
digital protection, signal processing, and power system auto-
mation.
Ahmed Hussien was born in Giza, Egypt on 1960. He
received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and PhD. degrees in Electrical En-
gineering, Cairo University, Egypt in 1983, 1987 and 2002
respectively Dr. Ahmed is currently an assistant professor at
Ciro University, Egypt. His interests are in digital signal
processing FPGA utilization in signal processing in addition to Special Interest
in Analogue circuit design
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