PLC technology for applications beyond smart metering

The breakthrough of narrowband powerline communications (PLC) technology in smart metering applications happened a few decades ago. Meanwhile, PLC was established as a de facto standard in Europe with more than 100 million smart meters installed using this technology in its different “flavours”. Nowadays, the technology has started to spread increasingly into other non-metering applications, providing the benefit of an already established network infrastructure with no need for new wires.

PLC Technology for Smart Applications

Smart Lighting

A very prominent non-metering application is smart street lighting, with its simplest use case being the remote control and monitoring of streetlights.

Replacing a legacy street lighting system with LEDs can reduce operating costs by half. Furthermore, the integration of networking capabilities and intelligent controls can provide an additional 30% in savings. Beyond that, it is the value added that makes smart street lighting solutions attractive.

The above-mentioned example is arbitrarily expandable to include features covering safety and security, traffic monitoring, parking management, environmental monitoring, and many more.

When comparing the suitability of various wired and wireless technologies, it turns out the PLC, RF Mesh, and the combination of the two (Hybrid PLC/RF) are the most suitable, mainly due to the good balance between cost and functionality. Hybrid technologies, as specified by the PRIME and G3 PLC alliance, are predestined for this kind of use case, offering significant expandability and making use of the benefit of combining two physical layers in a single logical network.

Additional applications also within the lighting segment include emergency lighting, tunnel lighting, or even pool lighting. Using PLC technology, maintenance and control capabilities can be added without the need for changing or modifying the existing cabling infrastructure and, as such, avoids cost and effort.

Photovoltaic (PV)

Another example is photovoltaic (PV) microgrids for 5G base stations. The major purpose of this kind of setup is to ensure power supply to the base stations whilst complying with carbon-neutral policies.

The system architecture consists of PV modules that are connected via a charge controller to the power cabinet of the base station. The cable length between the PV modules and the charge controller ranges from 10 to 100 metres.

This also includes dedicated cable lines for communication for monitoring purposes which can be saved if PLC technology is used. Considering the cost of $5 to $8/m the saving can be considerable.

The same principle is valid for residential distributed PV systems, where PLC can be used for the communication between the PV modules, the inverter, the distribution board, the charge controller, and the battery, ensuring PV module status monitoring, emergency shutdown, load monitoring and battery status monitoring.

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Dynamic Applications

There are so many other examples like submersible pumps, HVAC control, building automation applications, or even voice transmission over powerline for entry or public announcement systems. The possible applications are widespread that detailing them all is not feasible within a single article.

Renesas Electronics offers a range of PLC products, such as the CPX3 or CPX4 that have been specifically designed to work in very noisy environments. These offer high levels of robustness, security, flexibility, and modularity regarding frequency bands or usage with open standard protocols.

The solutions will be showcased at Enlit Europe from 29th November to 1st December 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany.

About the author

Christos Aslanidis is working for Renesas Electronics Europe, managing the Connectivity Solutions Department of the Industrial Automation Business Development Division in EMEA.

Aslanidis has been working in the semiconductor industry for more than 25 years.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power, and SoC products, Renesas provides comprehensive solutions for a broad range of automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT applications that help shape a limitless future.

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) empowers a safer, smarter and more sustainable future where technology helps make our lives easier. A leading global provider of microcontrollers, Renesas combines our expertise in embedded processing, analog, power and connectivity to deliver complete semiconductor solutions. These Winning Combinations accelerate time to market for automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT applications, enabling billions of connected, intelligent devices that enhance the way people work and live. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.