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NB-PLC Channel Modelling with Cyclostationary Noise Addition & OFDM

Implementation for Smart Grid

Conference Paper  in  AIP Conference Proceedings · October 2015

DOI: 10.1063/1.4942719

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Togis Thomas K. K. Gupta

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 NB-PLC Channel Modelling with Cyclostationary Noise
Addition & OFDM Implementation for Smart Grid
Togis Thomas1,a) and K.K.Gupta2,b)

1. P G student, Dept. of EEE, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
2. Asst Prof, Dept. of EEE, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India

a) Togis Thomas: h2014073@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

b) K.K. Gupta: kgupta@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Abstract. Power line communication (PLC) technology can be a viable solution for the future ubiquitous networks because
it provides a cheaper alternative to other wired technology currently being used for communication. In smart grid Power
Line Communication (PLC) is used to support communication with low rate on low voltage (LV) distribution network. In
this paper, we propose the channel modelling of narrowband (NB) PLC in the frequency range 5 KHz to 500 KHz by using
ABCD parameter with cyclostationary noise addition. Behaviour of the channel was studied by the addition of 11KV/230V
transformer, by varying load location and load. Bit error rate (BER) Vs signal to noise ratio SNR) was plotted for the
proposed model by employing OFDM. Our simulation results based on the proposed channel model show an acceptable
performance in terms of bit error rate versus signal to noise ratio, which enables communication required for smart grid
applications.

INTRODUCTION
The efficiency, safety and reliability of the electricity transmission and distribution system can be improved by
transforming the current electricity grids into an interactive (customers/operators) service network or the smart grid
[14]. Smart grid is a modernized electrical grid that uses analogue or digital information and communications
technology to gather and act on information - such as information about the behaviours of suppliers and consumers -
in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and
distribution of electricity. Electronic power conditioning and control of the production and distribution of electricity
are important aspects of the smart grid. There is no standard definition for smart grid. EPRI (Electric Power Research
Institute) defines smart grid as “A modernization of the electricity delivery system so that it monitors protects, and
automatically optimizes the operation of its interconnected elements” and (FERC) Federal Energy Regulatory
commission defines smart grid as “A power system architecture that permits two-way communication between the
grid and essentially all devices that connect to it, ultimately all the way down to consumer appliances”. An important
goal of the smart grid vision is a network that can improve outage management performance by responding faster to
repair equipment before it fails unexpectedly. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) provides consumers with the
ability to use electricity more efficiently and provides utilities with the ability to monitor and repair their network in
real time.
The experience with smart grids is recent in the United States and Europe; most of the projects have been
implemented only within the last two years or so. In Asia (China and India), full smart grid projects are not underway,
but there are a number of efforts towards smart grid [4].
The paper is organized in such a way that in section II literature survey of smart grid communication and PLC was
explained. In section III we present PLC channel modelling method based on transmission line theory .In section IV,
cyclostationary noise model was presented. Results and discussion of our proposed channel model with
cyclostationary noise addition is presented in section V. Finally, in section VI the conclusions are outlined

LITERATURE SURVEY
An in-depth understanding of smart grid will obtain if we go through statistics. The maximum installed capacity
of power plant in India is 270GW [17]. 20% of this installed capacity is used for just meeting the peak load power
demand which accounts for around 6000MW. In India the maximum installed capacity of a power house is 3000MW,
which is indicating that we can remove two maximally generating power house if we effectively tackle the peak power
demand. Also the cost for generating 1MW of power is Rs 7crore, which includes commissioning, installation and all.
This shows that how much huge is the impact factor of smart grid project.
The core of the smart grid transformation is the use of intelligent communications networks and systems as the
platform that enables grid instrumentation, analysis, and control of utility operations from power generation to trading,
and from transmission and distribution to retail .Main competing technologies are: Power line communication, cellular
network, Radio frequency mesh network. Power line communication is attractive because, no additional infrastructure
is required and can be deployed in existing outdoor power line [1].
Power line communication can be classified into three:
I. Ultra Narrowband or Very Low Frequency (VLF) PLC: PLC systems operate in the 0.3–3.0 kHz band to provide
about 100 b/s over range up to 150 km.

II. Narrowband or Low Frequency (LF) PLC: PLC systems operate in the 3–500 kHz band. The first industry
developed multicarrier PLC standards are PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) and G3. NB-PLC can
deliver up to 800kb/s. IEEE P1901.2 is a recently developed NB-PLC standard, efforts are going on to extend its
capability to device-specific billing and smart energy management.

III. Broadband or high frequency (HF) PLC: PLC systems operate in the 1.8–250 MHz band to provide up to 200
Mb/s for home area networks. The IEEE P1901 standard and the approved ITU G.996x recommendations (G.hn) are
the most recent BB standards. These systems are based on multicarrier communications.

NB-PLC finds many applications in the command, control and monitoring of AMI/AMR and cost of
communication infrastructure is less when compared to BB-PLC. We have worked on the narrowband power line
communication because of its control application. Ease of upgradability, worldwide harmonization, coexistence,
optimized design…etc. are the advantages of NB-PLC over BB-PLC [2].However PLC modelling by the combination
of both NB-PLC and BB-PLC is a better alternative since BB-PLC give more bandwidth and speed for data transfer
and NB-PLC give low cost infrastructure[3].NB-PLC can be used for data transfer in between home and utility and
BB-PLC can be used for the data transfer between utility and transmission and generation stations, since data content
is more.
The power line network differs considerably from conventional media such as twisted pair, coaxial, or fibre-optic
cables in terms of topology, structure, and physical properties. In PLC systems, the overhead transmission line
constitutes the transmission medium. But transmission conductors are designed for carrying electric power rather than
communication signal therefore PLC systems have to encounter rather hostile properties. The information signal
propagates through electric wires and various discrete components such as transformers, capacitors banks. First power
line channel modelling was based on multipath model [5]. The multipath model views the channel as an unknown
function that needs to be estimated based on training data. For the estimation of channel complex transfer function
certain parameter needs to be estimated and that parameter is estimated using training data. Multipath channel model
proposes a parametric model of the channel frequency response based on TL theory. This modelling approach is useful
when the network topology is not available or an ad hoc deployment is desired. By statistical analysis of power line
channel model by multipath, it is found that average power gain of the channel is log normally distributed [6]. PLC
channel modelling can also be done by using IIR filters [10].
Power line channel modelling based on transmission line theory is explained on ref. [7], there noise model was
based on awgn noise and impulsive noise. In our proposed model we consider cyclostationary behaviour of the noise
in PLC which is more realistic in power line. Modulation scheme narrowband systems can be single-carrier
modulation, spread spectrum and multicarrier modulation [13]. In our proposed model OFDM based multicarrier
modulation is used. Although power system or communication network simulators are being used extensively in both
domains, it is the combined simulation of the power system and communication network that has recently attracted
more attention due to rising interest in smart grid from governments, industry, and academia. Constructing a new
combined simulation environment is potentially time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, a co-simulation approach
combines existing specialized simulators [12].

TRANSMISSION LINE CHANNEL MODELLING

Transmission line can be considered as a distributed parameter network, in which voltage and current varies across
the length. Originally TL modelling was introduced for the designing of digital subscriber line (DSL) in which channel
is viewed as a deterministic quantity and that is a function of network topology and electrical components. In order to
obtain the model parameter of the transmission line, infinitesimal length of transmission line can be considered as a
discrete circuit which is described by lumped parameters. The powerful approach is to model the electrical components
of the PLC network as a 2-port networks (2PN) and use these network parameters to relate the voltages and currents
across the ports. In our work ABCD parameters are used to model network due to the ease of their concatenation for
different network topology configurations (simple matrix multiplications) [7]. Fig.1 shows the two port network using
ABCD parameter.

FIGURE 1. Transmission network of a two port network

Distributed parameters R, L, G and C completely characterize the electrical properties of a transmission line at a
given frequency. The primary parameters of copper and ACSR conductor we found out by using formulas defined in
[2].Vector Network Analysers (VNA) are required for characterizing the other components which are commonly used
in power line networks, such as transformers and capacitor banks banks, that lack a physical model at the frequency
range of interest [8].The overall transfer function of the simple power line channel as shown in fig. 2 can be given by
𝑍𝐿
𝐻=
𝐴𝑍𝐿 + 𝐵 + 𝐶𝑍𝐿 𝑍𝑆 + 𝐷𝑍𝑆
In our model we consider two different load, one consisting of household load and another consisting of industrial
load. Modelling of industrial load and household load was done based on the ref. [16].We have designed 11KV/230V
transmission line. Our designing is strictly based on IEC (International Electrotechnical Commision) code. Load is
placed at 20-30m from the pole. An 11KV/230V low voltage transformer is also included in our model. High
frequency modelling of transformer was done based on ref [15]. Fig. 2 shows 230V single power line network which
we have studied.

FIGURE 2. Single phase 230V power line network

 NOISE MODELLING
Typically for the design and analyse of communication system additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is used but
noise in power line significantly deviates from this. The main sources of PLC noise include: switching power supplies,
silicon-controlled rectifiers, brush motors, dimmer switches, and industrial sources directly connected to the supply
network. The resulting noise is non-white in nature with a time-varying spectral content exhibiting a 1/f -type decay
due to the decreasing concentration of noise sources with frequency and the used semiconductor devices. The three
main components of noise are generalized background noise, periodic noise, and asynchronous impulsive noise.
Studies targeted specifically for NB-PLC have shown that periodic noise and cyclostationary noise are the dominant
components in power line. [9,11]. Fig. 3 shows the simulated normalized Cyclostationary noise waveform.

FIGURE 3. Simulated cyclostationary noise waveform

Fig. 4 shows the corresponding Gaussian noise variance waveform for one cycle of noise production.

FIGURE 4. Approximated noise variance

From fig. 3 we can see that noise in power line is repeated at twice the power frequency (50Hz) that is, its time
period is TAC/2. Where TAC is the time period of power supply voltage. Cyclostationary behaviour of noise waveform
is due to presence of non-linear elements such as diodes and transistors present in electric devices. The electrical
devices plugged in outlets (loads) contain nonlinear elements such as diodes and transistors that, relative to the small
and rapidly changing communication signals, appear as a resistance biased by the AC mains voltage. The periodically
changing AC signal swings the devices over different regions of their nonlinear I/V curve and this induces a
periodically time-varying change of their resistance. The overall impedance appears as a shunt impedance across the
hot and return wires and, since its time variability is due to the periodic AC mains waveform, it is naturally periodic.
Channel model used for OFDM simulation is shown in fig. 5.

𝑟(𝑡) = 𝑠(𝑡) ∗ ℎ(𝑡) + 𝑛(𝑡)

n(t)

s(t) h(t) + r(t)

FIGURE 5. OFDM simulation model

In which h(t), s(t), n(t) and r(t) are the impulse response of the channel(obtained from ABCD parameters),
transmitted OFDM signal, channel noise and the received signal, respectively.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Simulation for our proposed model was performed using MATLAB simulation software. We have consider a
distance of 500m from transformer to the household load. Fig. 6 shows the frequency response of power line channel
without the addition of transformer.

FIGURE 6. Power line channel frequency response characteristics

From fig. 6 it is found that channel is getting attenuating with the increase in frequency, which suggests that our
proposed model is good for narrowband power line communication. It is found that channel is getting more attenuated
when extra load is added to the system as shown in fig. 7. Also channel attenuation is more when the load distance is
increased. Channel frequency response gets attenuated more with transformer addition when compared to load
addition as shown in fig. 8.
 FIGURE 7. Channel frequency response with load addition

FIGURE 8. PLC channel frequency response with transformer addition

In order to evaluate the performance of our channel model we implemented Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM).PLC protocols such as PRIME, G3, IEEE 1901.2 are based on OFDM modulation.
Table 1 summarizes the modulation parameters used for our simulation. Fig. 9 shows the BER versus SNR plot
for 50 KHz and 100 Khz of channel response. BER is getting increasing with increase in frequency range. Fig. 10
shows the BER versus SNR plot for 16-QAM.Data rate is increased by using higher level of modulation but there is
proportional increase in the bit error rate.
TABLE 1. OFDM Modulation parameter

Parameter Value

Modulation QAM M=4,16

FFT length 256
Frequency Range 5KHz to 100KHz
Coding scheme ½ rate convolution code
Interleaving Matrix
Cyclic prefix 30
Raw data rate 52.3Kb/s
Number of pilot subcarrier 1
 FIGURE 9. BER vs SNR plot for 4-QAM

FIGURE 10. BER vs SNR plot for 16-QAM

Fig. 11 shows the scatter plot for 4-QAM with SNR of 20db.

FIGURE 11. Scatter plot for 4-QAM with SNR 20db.

CONCLUSION
In this paper, we developed a PLC channel modelling with cyclostationary noise addition for low voltage (LV)
power lines over the 5~490 kHz frequency band for smart grid communication application. We designed 11KV/230V
 power line channel and designing was confined to latest IEC code. Different types of cables typically used in LV
distribution network were based on the lumped-element circuit model. Performance of our proposed model was
evaluated by using OFDM modulation. BER versus SNR plot for various condition suggest that power line channel
can be used for various control application in smart grid even though there is much attenuation in the network by
transformer. Inclusion of cyclostationary noise to power line channel gives more realistic to our model when compared
to other noise model in literature.
Power line channel can be used as a communication channel for the device to device communication in smart grid.
Narrow band PLC is best suited for the control application. No additional infrastructure cost is required since PLC
making use of existing power line.

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