2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

Power Line Carrier (PLC) Based

Communication System for Distribution
Automation System

* M. M. Ahmed, Member, IEEE and ** W. L. Soo

* Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Melaka, Malaysia. Email: musse@utem.edu.my

** Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Melaka, Malaysia. invy2004@hotmail.com

Abstract—This paper presents the development of a power

line carrier in low distribution automation system (DAS) for
operating and controlling low voltage (LV) down stream of
415/240V. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) based Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) along power
line communication (PLC) system are used for DAS
development that practically simulates the down stream
distribution system functions in an automated manner. It is
the first DAS research work done on customer side
substation for operating and controlling between the
consumer side system and the substation using PLC. Most
of the work in this paper is focused on PLC that provides an
effective communication system for both RTU and SCADA
systems. The Human Machine Interface for SCADA system
is developed using customized software and an RTU
microprocessor and its software implements.
Index Terms—SCADA system, RTU, RS-232, RS-485,
Serial Modules, Modbus, TCP/IP, Master-Slave.
II. PLC IN POWER SYSTEM
The first carrier frequency systems began to
operate around the year 1922 which operated in the
frequency spectrum from 10KHz to 490kHz [2]. The PLC
was applied for telemetry purposes. In the 1930s, ripple
carrier signaling was introduced on the medium (10-20
kV) and low voltage (240/415V) distribution systems [3].
In the mid 1980s, with the introduction to SCADA, some
of the utility companies have made further developement
of PLC communication [4]. PLC is used in control and
telemetry applications for both utility side applications
and consumer-side applications [5]. The challenges faced
by the PLC communication are noise, disturbances,
power line channel impedance variations, and signal
attenuation.

I. INTRODUCTION

The main advantage with PLC is the use of an

existing infrastructure. A recent study was published in
Metering International Magazine recent edition Issue 2,
2002 mentioned the communication media used in the
automatic meter reading (AMR). It appears that the most
common AMR communication technology worldwide is
radio (RF) and the second most common communication
media is the PLC [1].
The PLC communications take place over the
same lines that deliver electricity. This technique
involves injecting a high frequency AC carrier onto the
power line and modulating this carrier with data Fig. 1. Simple PLC Communication System [2]
originating from the remote meter or central station.
Power line carrier techniques are used successfully and Fig. 1 shows a typical PLC system for running
cost effectively for short distances. communication signals in the distribution network. The
In this paper, PLC types, the basic technique in signal is generated in the data centre and is sent through
PLC, PLC modem, system architecture using PLC for the power line to the receiver which passes the signal to
DAS are presented. the coupler. The low voltage concentrator picks up and
enhances the signal which is passes to the other coupler

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

and sends to the building. The desired signal finally

reaches the users’ premises. In the data transmission, the
distribution transformer is completely bypassed to avoid
the undesired influence of the device.

III. BASIC TECHNIQUES OF PLC

Fig. 3. Resistive Hybrid

Fig. 2. Basic Power Line Carrier Terminal

The major components of a PLC channel are
shown in Fig. 2. The problem associated with the PLC
channel is the requirement to put the carrier signal onto
the high voltage line without damaging the carrier
equipment. Once the signal is on the power line it must
be directed in the proper direction in order for it to be
received at the remote terminal line.
A. Transmittesr and Receivers
The carrier transmitters and receivers are usually
mounted in a rack or cabinet in the control house. The
line tuner is out in the switchyard. This means that there
is a large distance between the equipment and the tuner.
The connection between the two is made using a coaxial
cable. The coaxial cable provides shielding so that the
noise cannot get into the cable and cause interference.
The coaxial cable is connected to the line tuner which
must be mounted at the base of the coupling capacitor. If
there is more than one transmitter involved per terminal,
the signal must go through isolation circuits before
connecting to the line tuner.
B. Hybrids and Filters
Fig. 4. Reactance Hybrid
When a hybrid is connected to the power line
through a line tuner and coupling capacitor, the
termination impedance may not always be a 50 ˖
resistive. This type of hybrid is called a reactance hybrid
and is shown in Fig. 4. Resistive Hybrid and Reactance
Hybrid are balanced hybrids which have equal losses
from each input port to the output port.
The success of a PLC channel will depend on
the received signal to noise ratio (SNR), and this can be
obtained by maximizing the amount of transmitter signal
that is coupled to the phase wire. For long distance
transmission, losses may be high if using balanced
hybrids in the application. Another type of hybrid can be
used in an application of this type. It is called a skewed
hybrid.
Fig. 5 shows the skewed hybrid. In skewed
hybrid, the losses from input port #1 to the output are not
the same as the losses from port #2 to the output. The
SNR is better if it is compared with balanced hybrid. The
high losses in the receive path do not affect the SNR
since the noise is attenuated by the same amount as the
signal.

The purpose of the hybrid circuits is to enable

the connection of two or more transmitters together on
one coaxial cable. The hybrid circuits prevent
intermodulation distortion due to the signal from one
transmitter affecting the output stages of the other
transmitter. There are many forms of hybrids, such as
resistive hybrids, reactance hybrids, and skewed hybrids
to name the most popular types.
Fig.3 shows the resistive hybrid. By assuming
that the secondary of the transformer is terminated with a
Fig. 5. Skewed Hybrid
50 Ω resistor and a voltage (V) is applied to the input port
#1. The 50 Ω load will be reflected in the primary of the
transformer as a 25 Ω quantity from point (a) to the
center tap (ct). As shown in Fig. 2, the voltage across the C. Line Tuners
input port #2 is 0 volts, and the hybrid isolates the voltage
at one input port from the other input port. Line tuning units (LTUs) are used to tune to the
carrier frequency and provide impedance matching

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia
between the power line and the transmitter/receiver. The
LTU includes an impedance-matching transformer, a
series-resonant L-C circuit tuned to the carrier frequency,
and also a protective device [6].
D. Line Traps
Line traps provide blocking of the carrier signal,
preventing it from continuing into other transmission line
sections. Single and two-frequency line traps are parallel
L-C circuits with parameters of variable inductances and
capacitances selected so as to resonate at a specific
frequency (or at two frequencies) thus blocking the
carrier frequency (Fig. 6). Line traps are available in
various inductance ratings and continuous power-
frequency current ranges [4].
Fig. 6. Equivalent Circuit Diagrams of Line Traps
IV. PLC MODEM
Fig. 7. Single Phase PLC Modem
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Fig. 8. Three Phase PLC Modem
The PLC Modem is a dedicated device for
transferring data over low voltage power line. Fig. 7 and
Fig.8 show the PLC modems used in the power line cable
as communication medium. It is convenient as it
eliminates the need to lay additional cables. The modem
at the transmission end modulates the signal from data
terminal through RS-232 interface onto the carrier signal
in the power line. At the receiving end, the modem
recovers the data from the power line carrier signal by
demodulation and sends the data to data terminals
through RS-232 interface.
Fig.9. Remote Automatic Meter Reading System Using PLC Modem
Fig. 9 shows an example in a remote automatic
meter reading system. It illustrates the schematic diagram
of the connection between power line modem and the
data terminals using power line cables.
V. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE USING PLC
Fig. 10 shows the system architecture of
SCADA for DAS that is used PLC modem as the
communication media. The Embedded Ethernet RTU and
computer are connected directly to the PLC modems. The
PLC modems use spread spectrum (SS) technology -
CEbus. The SS technology is referred as the method of
signal modulation where the transmitted signal occupies a
bandwidth which is greater than the minimum necessary
 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

to send the information. The spread spectrum techniques

that have been applied to the PLC systems use chirping
method. Fig.11 shows the carrier chirp waveform
measured from the PLC systems. In the CEbus standard,
the frequency range of the chirping method is from 100
kHz to 400 kHz over a 100s meaning a Unity Symbol Fig. 12. CEBus Frame Packet.
Time (UST). In CEbus protocol, the data is transmitted in
short frame as shown in Fig. 12. The PLC target modem VI. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
will answer back to the source PLC modem when it
receives a request.
The fault isolation operation is built in this
research to locate fault point and isolate the fault point.
There are two modes of operation which are the manual
mode and automatic mode. In manual mode, the operator
will manually switch on or off the loads. In automatic
mode, the system will detect automatically the fault load
and isolate the fault load from other healthy loads. All
these functions are done by PLC system to communicate
from section of the system to another.
Fig.13 shows the experiment for manual mode at
customer service substation panel. By using HMI
application developed in this research, each load which
consists of 40W bulb lamp is switched on in sequence by
the user. The experiment starts by clicking on reset button
to reset the system. This experiment is repeated four
times and the result is shown in Fig. 17.

Fig. 13. Manual Mode Experiment Procedure-1

Fig. 10. System Architecture

Fig. 14. Manual Mode Experiment Procedure-2

Fig. 11 CEBus Carrier Chirp

Fig. 15. Auto Mode Experiment Procedure-1

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia
Fig.14 shows the experiment for manual mode at
the service substation panel. This experiment is repeated
four times and the result is shown in Fig. 17. Zone 1,
Zone 2, Zone 3 and Zone 4 represent the MCCB1,
MCCB2, MCCB3 and MCCB4 respectively.
Fig.15 shows the experiment for automatic mode
at the service substation panel. In automatic mode, the
fault point is manually triggered by using the “Test
Button” of Mikro 2200. Mikro 2200 is an over-current
and earth fault relay. This experiment is repeated three
times and the result is shown in Fig. 17.
Fig. 16. Auto Mode Experiment Procedure-2
Fig.16 shows the experiment for automatic mode
at customer service substation panel. In automatic mode,
the fault point is manually triggered by using the “Test
Button” of earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB). This
experiment is repeated three times and the result is shown
in Fig. 17.
The percentages failure of the system for not
able to operate correctly based on the experimental
procedures are described in Fig.17. The failure operations
were during the manual mode of service substation to
switch on Zone 2 and Zone 3. The reason of this failure is
due to loose wiring at the digital output module. One
failure was recorded during automatic mode of customer
service substation when fault was simply triggered at
Zone 2. The system was not able to switch on the other
healthy loads during the operation because of the loose
wiring at the second feeder. After the causes of failures
have been fixed, the experiments were continued and no
operation failure was recorded. The percentages of failure
operation in Fig.17 are contributed by human factors.
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Fig. 17. Percentage of Failure Operation
VII. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results from the experiments, the
PLC modem is reliable. The application of PLC can be
very simple or can be quite challenging depends on the
desired use. The PLC communication technology is still
rapidly evolving. However it has limited to narrow band
application such as telemetry and SCADA for remote
metering. The PLC communication technology has
strengths and also weaknesses. There is a lack of
standardization and interoperability of PLC
communication relevant products. The bandwidth in the
PLC communication is constrained by regulatory
authorities to prevent the interference with other networks.
The standards for limiting the bandwidth depend on the
countries of use. The PLC communication technology has
the potential to further extension in the future.
REFERENCES
[1] CIRED, “Distribution Utility Telecommunication
Interfaces, Protocols and Architectures”, Final Report of
the CIRED Working Group WG06, September 2003. pp.52
[2] K.W. Louie, A. Wang, P.Wilson, and P.Buchanan, “Discussion on
Power Line Carrier Applications”, Manitoba HVDC Research
Centre, IEEE, 2006, pp.655
[3] K.W. Louie, A. Wang, P.Wilson, and P.Buchanan, “Discussion on
Power Line Carrier Applications”, Manitoba HVDC Research
Centre, IEEE, 2006, pp.656
[4] K Dostert, 1997, Telecommunications over the Power Distribution
Grid- Possibilities and Limitations Proc 1997 Internat. Symp. on
Power Line Comms and its Applications pp1-9
[5] T J Sheppard 'Mains Communications- a practical metering
system' 7th International Conference on Metering Applications
and Tariffs for Electricity Supply pp 223-227 17-19 Nov 1992
(London UK: IEE 1992)
[6] Miriam P. Sanders and Roger E. Ray, “Power Line Carrier
Channel & Application Condiserations For Transmission Line
Relaying”, Pulsar Document Number C045-P05967, 2000.
[7] Archnet, “Embedded Power Line Carrier Modem”, available
online: http://www.archnetco.com/english/product/ATL90.htm
[8] Customized Non-interruptible Distribution Automation System,
Short Term Project No. PJP/2006/FKE (1) , UTeM, 2005-2006
[9] Intelligent Distribution Automation System: Customized SCADA
Based Rtu For Distribution Automation System, M.Sc. Research
Project, UTeM, 2005-2007.
 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Musse Mohamud Ahmed is an
associate Prof. at Faculty of electrical
Engineering, UTeM. He graduated
from UTM and got his Ph.D in the
year 2000. He worked Multimedia
University (MMU), as lecturer at the
Faculty of Engineering & Technology
in Malacca campus from 2000 to 2002.
He joined UTeM in March 2002 as a
lecturer. In October 2002, he was
appointed as deputy dean,
postgraduate, research & development at the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, UTeM, a position he held till March 2007. Since then he
has been with UTeM.
Dr. Musse has been IEEE-PES member for eleven years and PES
Executive Committee in Malaysia chapter for the last five years. His
research interests include: Distribution Automation System, Power
System Operation and Control Simulation & Modeling of Large Power
Systems, Intelligent Power Systems, Energy & Renewable Energy and
Risk Assessment of Electricity Supply

Soo Wai Lian was born in Malacca, Malaysia, on

June 3, 1978. She received her B.S degree in electrical engineering from
the University Technology Malaysia and Master of Science in
University Technical Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). She is studying in the
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka pursuing her PHD degree. She is
specializing in electrical power distribution system.

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