Abstract
The integration of Distributed Generation, Electric Vehicles, and storage without compromising the quality of the power delivery requires the deployment of a communications overlay that allows monitoring and controlling low voltage networks in almost real time. Power Line Communications are gaining momentum for this purpose since they present a great trade-off between economic and technical features. However, the power lines also represent a harsh communications medium which presents different problems such as noise, which is indeed affected by Distributed Generation, Electric Vehicles, and storage. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the types of noise that affects Narrowband Power Line Communications, including normative noises, noises coming from common electronic devices measured in actual operational power distribution networks, and noises coming from photovoltaic inverters and electric vehicle charging spots measured in a controlled environment. The paper also reviews several techniques to mitigate the effects of noise, paying special attention to passive filtering, as for being one of the most widely used solution to avoid this kind of problems in the field. In addition, the paper presents a set of tests carried out to evaluate the impact of some representative noises on Narrowband Power Line Communications network performance, as well as the effectiveness of different passive filter configurations to mitigate such an impact. In addition, the considered sources of noise can also bring value to further improve PLC communications in the new scenarios of the Smart Grid as an input to theoretical models or simulations.
Highlights
The penetration of DG (Distributed Generation) based on renewables, EV (Electric Vehicles), and distributed storage in the low voltage power distribution networks entails many benefits.As a matter of fact, it will definitely contribute to achieving the main goals of the so-called SmartGrids, such as minimizing both costs and environmental impacts while maintaining system reliability, Energies 2017, 10, 1238; doi:10.3390/en10081238 www.mdpi.com/journal/energiesEnergies 2017, 10, 1238 resilience, and stability [1]
This paper presents a comprehensive study of noise sources, their effects and countermeasures in NBPLC PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) networks
The paper presents a set of noises both generated synthetically and measured in the field or in the LINTER of Unión Fenosa Distribución
Summary
The penetration of DG (Distributed Generation) based on renewables, EV (Electric Vehicles), and distributed storage in the low voltage power distribution networks entails many benefits.As a matter of fact, it will definitely contribute to achieving the main goals of the so-called SmartGrids, such as minimizing both costs and environmental impacts while maintaining system reliability, Energies 2017, 10, 1238; doi:10.3390/en10081238 www.mdpi.com/journal/energiesEnergies 2017, 10, 1238 resilience, and stability [1]. As a matter of fact, it will definitely contribute to achieving the main goals of the so-called Smart Grids, such as minimizing both costs and environmental impacts while maintaining system reliability, Energies 2017, 10, 1238; doi:10.3390/en10081238 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies. As a token of the increase in complexity that this change of paradigm entails, assuming 100 SS (Secondary Substations) per primary substation and 100 smart meters per SS, which sounds quite reasonable in European power distribution networks [2,3], the number of elements that need to be considered increases four orders of magnitude. There are different ways of approaching the new scenario sketched in previous paragraph, but all them rely on the same common idea: the solution is all about communications In this regard, AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructures) are being widely deployed worldwide [4,5,6] to provide bidirectional communications which allow delivering sophisticated services such as DR
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