Abstract
Power line impedance is a very important parameter on the design of power line communications (PLC) modem architecture. Variations on the impedance of the power line affect the communications circuit performance. In order to determine impedance of the power lines, measurements were carried out in Turkey at frequencies ranging from 10 to 170 kHz, (CENELEC A,B,C,D bands). Measurements were conducted in three categories: rural, urban and the industrial power lines. Experimental results are presented in graphical form. The measured impedances were determined as 3-17 ohms, 1-17 ohms, and 1-21 ohms for rural, urban and the industrial lines, respectively. A set of the formulas between impedance and frequency are developed on the power lines using the regression analysis from the obtained empirical data. Signal attenuations on the power lines in the CENELEC band are also measured for rural, urban and industrial regions. Attenuation measurements are repeated for phase-neutral, phase-ground and the neutral-ground conductors. Signal attenuations are found to be 4-30 dB, for different power lines. To establish validity of obtained results for the design of PLC systems, the results are compared with previous investigations. The effects of some household appliances such as TV, PC, UPS, lighting and cooling systems on the impedances and the attenuations for power line communications systems are observed. Some suggestions and proposals are presented for PLC modem designers.
Highlights
Power line communications (PLC) uses the energy cables as the communication channel and the digital data are transferred via energy cables
The modem designers may use the data obtained these figures about the rural, urban and the industrial power lines, the best curves may be developed between data measurements taken in pairs
If it is assumed that the power lines in different countries are similar to each other, obtained result from these measurements may be universally used in PLC system design
Summary
Power line communications (PLC) uses the energy cables as the communication channel and the digital data are transferred via energy cables. Previous experiments may be summarized as follows: Malack and Engstrom measured 86 commercial 50 Hz AC power distribution systems in six European countries and US These measurements show that the impedance of residential power lines increase with frequency and are in the range about 1.5 to 80 ohms at 100 kHz [1]. The main target of this study is to realize measurements and obtain some useful data about the power line impedance in power distribution networks. For this purpose, measurements are conducted at the three categories: rural, urban and industrial power line networks, in Trabzon, Turkey in 2006 [7]. In additional to previous works described above, all previous experimental and theoretically studies in this area are collected as a reference book by Dostert [8], and he is presented very useful suggestions and comments for the power line communications researchers
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