A Multiconductor Model of Power Line Communication in Medium-Voltage Lines

Most power line communication (PLC) models are designed to date simulate power lines as two-wire lines. However, in alternating current (AC) electrical distribution, the two-wire option is seldom applied, and medium-voltage lines are most often based on the three-phase configuration. In this context, the influence of the ground, which constitutes another conductor with specific parameters, cannot be neglected. Two-wire models are characterized by limited accuracy, not allowing us to simulate certain major phenomena affecting PLC. This, for example, could embody the answer to the question of whether it is more advantageous to transmit a signal independently through each phase, reference the signal with respect to another phase or to use the ground as a reference. This paper discusses a multi-conductor model that eliminates the disadvantages outlined above; the proposed model exploits the multi-conductor telegrapher’s equations. In order to be able to include medium-voltage (MV)/ low-voltage (LV) transformers in medium-voltage network models, we constituted a transformer model. The designed models were validated on a real medium-voltage network. To be able to evaluate the suitability of the PLC, the noise in the medium voltage network was measured in order to determine the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).