Sensitivity analysis of a PLC-based anti-islanding solution using DSSS

Distributed generation (DG) units are widely used in modern power grids. The sub-grid islanding condition associated with a loss of mains (LoM) in such grids is a topical safety issue. In this paper, we discuss potential anti-islanding solutions, analyze the physical constraints, propose a power line communication (PLC) based concept, and perform its sensitivity analysis. The concept description covers a system topology, a signalling mechanism, communication hardware, and a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) based software signalling algorithm. The designed concept is evaluated in the laboratory environment using software-defined radios (SDR), a medium/low-voltage (MV/LV) distribution transformer, and a white noise generator. Test results and their analysis are presented. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the carrier frequency, the spreading code (SC) length, and the synchronization key (SK) length are analyzed as sensitivity factors, and operational results of the concept are discussed.