Noise Sources, Effects and Countermeasures in Narrowband Power-Line Communications Networks: A Practical Approach

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.