Performance of PLC communications in frequency bands from 150 kHz to 500 kHz

One of the most common communications technologies being used as the media to access the meters in Smart Metering deployments is Narrowband Power Line Communications (NB-PLC), mainly in Europe but also in other places. Most of the systems available in the market under NB-PLC are extending the frequency bands used in order to increase their bandwidth and avoid interferences from other devices in the network. This paper presents results obtained in real-field tests performed by Iberdrola and Tecnalia in an urban LV distribution network representative of this kind of installations in Europe. The objective of the tests is to verify the performance of a NB-PLC technology using frequency bands from 150 kHz to 500 kHz. The tests have been developed in several points of the same LV distribution network, checking point to point connections among them. Apart from the performance of the different links, the noise levels measured at the reception points have been also analyzed.