Experimental Evaluation on Narrow Band Power Line Communication in Medium and Low Voltage Smart Grids

The aim of this work is to perform a feasibility study on the power line communication for the development of a new generation of interface devices (IDs) for smart grid and energy storage applications. More in detail, this paper deals with one of the most important issues on this topic, which is the communication system. Among the existing communication technologies, the study is focused on power line communications (PLCs). After an analysis of the state of the art in the field, the main aspects are analyzed, concerning the open issues on the use of PLCs, especially for medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) systems. In this work the use of PLC in MV-LV networks is investigated, by means of experimental tests in the case of a two-ways MV/LV communication between two secondary substations connected by a MV overhead power line by considering a ST7580 transceiver used in a new ID developed by the authors. Each substation has a by-pass connection at MV bus-bars and a MV/LV oil filled power transformer. Firstly, communication issues are presented, secondly experimental test in the presence of voltage net, i.e. 24 kV have been carried out to verify the possibility of power transformer crossing.