POWER LINE CARRIER

COMMUNICATION
RAJASTHAN RAJYA VIDHUT PRASARAN NIGAM LIMITED
NAVEEN KUMAR SHARMA
2008UEC407
EC-4, FINAL YEAR
MNIT ,JAIPUR

ACKNOLEDGEMENT
I am very grateful to shri MOHD. FAROOQ
NIRBAN (Additional executive engineer) for his
guidance & useful lectures.
I would also like to
express my sincere thanks towards PLCC staff of
132 KV CHAMBAL G.S.S for their coordination
& trouble shooting.

INTRODUCTION OF R.S.E.B.
* RSEB started from 1 July 1957
It is a big organization and it functions
under provisional electricity act
The aim of RSEB is to supply electricity
to entire Rajasthan state in most
economical way
The target of board is to distribute energy
in new areas as soon as possible

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION OF PLCC
GENERAL DISCRIPTION OF PLCC
SPECIFICATIONS
BASIC PRINCIPLE OF PLCC
CONSTRUCTION OF PLCC
TYPES OF COUPLING
WAVETRAPS
BATTERY CHARGER
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF PLCC
CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION OF PLCC

POWER LINE CARRIER COMMUNICATION

Power line carrier communication has been found to

be the most economical and reliable method for
communication in a medium and over long distance
in a power system.

For sending speech or other signals from point to

point in an interconnected power grid many
communication methods can be used. Some of them
are as following:
. Public Telephone Network
. Direct Lines
. Radio Circuits
. Power Line Carrier Communication(PLCC)

MODE OF OPERATION

PLCC Unit Provide Five type of operation:

1:TELEPHONE FACILITES
2:COMPRESSOR & EXPANDER
3:EMERGENCY CALL
4:SIGNAL BOOSTING
5:SUPERVISION & ALARMS

GENERAL MODULATION
PRINCIPLE
SINGLE SIDE BAND TRANSMISSION
CARRIER FREQUENCY IS SPACED ON A

4-KHZ
I.F. FIXED AT 16-KHZ
FULL DUPLEX MODE IS USED
LOWER SIDE BAND IS USED
THROUGHOUT ALL COMMUNICATION

SPECIFICATIONS OF PLCC
1)GENERAL Carrier frequency range :- 40 to 512 KHZ
Useful AF band
:- 300 to 3,700HZ
2)TRNSMITTER
R.F.TRANSMITTING POWER;
-peak envelope power:- 25w
-side band power
:- 15w

-I.F. CARRIER FRIQUENCY

-PILOT TONE
-TEST TONE
-DUMMY LODE
3)POWER SUPPLY
-DC SUPPLY
-CAPACITY
- POWER CONSUMPTION

: 16 KHZ
: 3600 HZ
: 1000 HZ
: 20 OHMS
: 24 V
: 800 AH
:< 80 W

BASIC PRINCIPLE OF PLCC

In PLCC the higher mechanical strength and

insulation level of high voltage power lines result in
increased reliability of communication and lower
attenuation over long-distance.
Since telephone communication system can not
be directly connected to the high voltage lines,
suitably designed coupling devices have to be
employed.
Coupling devices consists of high voltage
capacitors in conjunction with suitable line matching
units(LMUs) for line impedance matching to that of
the co-axial cable connecting the unit to the PLC
transmit-receive equipment.
Carrier currents used for communication have to
be prevented from entering the power equipment

 To prevent loss of communication signals, wave

traps or line traps are employed. These consist of
suitably designed choke coils connected in series
with the line, which offer negligible impedance to RF
carrier currents.
Wave traps also usually have one or more suitably
designed capacitors connected in parallel with the
choke coils so as to resonate at carrier frequencies
and thus offer even higher impedance to the flow of
RF currents.
The RF is prevented from entering the stations
bus(yard) and the power frequency is blocked of
coupling capacitor.

The basic arrangement of connecting the WT

and coupling
capacitor in PLCC communication is shown in
the figure
below

(a) PHASE TO GROUND COUPLING

(b) PHASE TO PHASE COUPLING

(c) PHASE TO PHASE COUPLING

(d) INTERLINE OR INTER CIRCUIT COUPLING

WAVE TRAP

WAVE TRAPS
Wave traps (WTs) are used between the transmission line and the
power stations to avoid carrier power dislocation in the power plant
and cross talk with other power line carrier circuits connected to the
same power station.
WT also ensure proper operating conditions and signal levels at the
PLCC transmit-receive equipment irrespective of switching
conditions of the power circuits and equipment in the station.
A wave trap must satisfy the following requirements:
1) It must block the carrier currents. By blocking, we mean that
the track should attenuate the H.F. signals by at least 8 to 10 dB.
2) It must carry the power frequency current safely during normal
operation as well as during short circuit fault conditions.

LIGHTNING ARRESTER

The ground wires running over the towers provides an

adequate protection against lighting called L.A.
It reduced the induced electrostatic or electromagnetic
voltage.
A good light arrester must posses the following
properties:

1:It should not absorb any current during normal operation, but
during over voltage surge it must provide an easy way to the
earth.
2:After the over voltage discharge, it must be capable of
interrupting the normal frequency of current from flowing to
ground as soon as voltages reaches below break down value.

DIAGRAM OF L.A.

TUNING CAPACITOR

Used are high voltage, high stability mica

capacitors with low losses
For lower voltage class of tuning units with
impulse test voltage rating upto 40 KV
polystyrene capacitors are used
For higher voltage class of tuning units with
impulse test voltage rating upto 150 KV,
capacitors with mineral oil impregnated paper
dielectric are used

THE DRAIN COIL

The drainage coils has a pondered iron core serves to ground

the power frequency charging to appear in the output of the
unit.
The coarse voltage arrester consists of an air gap, which
sparks over at about 2 KV and protects the matching unit
against line surges.
Firstly it isolates the communication equipment for the power
line.
Secondly it serves to match the characteristic impedance of
the power line 400-600 ohms to that of the co-axial vacuum
arrester, which sparks, is over at about 250 v is provided for
giving additional protection to the communication equipment.

BATTERY CHARGER

PLCC (Power Line Carrier Communication) works on rectified AC

or main power supply. When supply goes off, we use BATTERY
CHARGER for proper functioning of PLCC, which provides supply
to the PLCC equipment for uninterrupted working. It provides DC to
the panel by battery of 48V. In this type 24 batteries are connected in
series and individually per battery has approximately 2V capacity.
Battery charger mainly consists of 4 sections

1. Float charger
2. Boost charger section
3. Control section
4. Alarm section

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

NORMAL INPUT
:415 V AC 3-PHASE
INPUT VARIATION : +/- 20%

FLOAT CHARGER :
DC OUTPUT
OUTPUT CURRENT
EFFICIENCY

:50 V
:20 TO 40 AMP
: >70%

BOOST CHARGER
DC output
Output current
Efficiency

- 43.2 to 67.2 V
- 25-70 Amps.
- >80%

ADVANTAGES
2
2

1. No separate wires are needed for communication purposes, as the power

lines themselves carry power as well as communication signals. Hence the
cost is less.
2 Power lines have appreciably higher mechanical strength compared with
ordinary lines. They would normally remain unaffected under the conditions,
which might seriously damage telephone lines.
3. Power lines usually provide the shortest route between the power stations.
4. Power lines have large cross-sectional area resulting in very low resistance
per unit length. Consequently carrier signals suffer much less attenuation
than when they travel on telephone lines of equal lengths.
5. Power lines are well insulated to provide only negligible leakage between
conductors and ground even in adverse weather conditions.
6. Largest spacing between conductors reduces capacitance, which results in
smaller attenuation at high frequencies. The large spacing also
reduces the cross talk to a considerable extent.

DISADVANTAGES
1. Proper care has to be taken to guard carrier equipment and
persons using them against high voltages and currents on the lines.
2.Reflections are produced on spur lines connected to high voltage
lines. This increases attenuation and creates problem.
3.High voltage lines have transformer connections, attenuate
carrier currents. Sub-station equipments adversely affect the
carrier currents.
4. Noise introduced by power lines is far more than in case of
telephone lines. This is due to the noise generated by discharge
across insulators, corona and switching processes.
It is obvious that an effective power lines carrier system must
overcome these difficulties.

CONCLUSION
A practical training for a period of 60 days
provided me with an in-depth knowledge about
POWER LINE CARRIER COMMUNICATION
(PLCC).

THANK YOU

QUERIES ?