Optimal Placement of Data Concentrators and Repeaters in PLC-enabled Smart Grids

The focus of this paper is on Power Line Communication (PLC) technology which has a great potential to accommodate the huge amount of data produced by different applications and nodes in the context of Smart Grids (SGs). In particular, this paper dives deeper into the planning and placement of Data Concentrator (DC) in various territorial categories: urban, suburban and rural environments. Supplemental repeaters, usually omitted in previous stat-of-the-art, are inserted throughout the electrical grid to reach the entire network. A multi-criteria optimization approach has been followed and the popular NSGA-II algorithm has been exploited to find a good trade-off between the conflicting performance and profitability objectives. Results of extensive numerical simulation are provided confirming the effective need of repeaters especially in remote areas where Smart Meters (SMs) are sparsely distributed. Moreover and despite the destructive influence of fading and noise along with the involved investments, PLC is still able to provide a satisfactory balance between performance and cost.