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Power line communications (PLC) have been an active research area for many years and it is still the case, mainly because they present economic and technical natural advantages for a wide range of applications using the existing electrical grid as transmission medium. In this paper, the authors provide an update on PLC technologies and their applications in Smart Grids, the main challenges they are currently facing, how they can be addressed, and the current research initiatives.

New resources and opportunities are presented to Distribution System Operators (DSO) in terms of data generated by the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). A Network oriented approach was used in this paper for non-technical losses (NTL) detection, where it was determined the necessary available data from AMI to perform it.. It was combined two different methods, power flow study and state estimation, to detect if there are non-technical losses in a system and locate the probable source of it.It was possible to determine a inspection zone where it is likely to find the NTL source.

In this paper, an open complementary split ring resonator (OCSRR)-loaded monopole antenna is used as a liquid sensor for discrimination of ethanol solvents with different concentrations. The resulting dual-band sensor is working at 2.45 GHz and 4.74 GHz and has been fabricated on the FR4 commercial substrate. The sensor part is integrated with the electronic parts including a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a zero-biased Schottky diode detector (SDD) allowing the sensor to be low cost and portable. The proposed sensor has been find capable to discriminate a wide range of dielectric variations for ethanol concentration detection.

PLC (Power Line Communications) present a wide range of advantages that make them very appropriate for Smart Grid applications, such as that there is no need to deploy additional communication infrastructure. However, they also involve a harsh communication medium, which suffers from frequency selectivity, impedance variation depending on the connected loads, or noise introduced by such connected loads. In this context, simulation tools are useful to evaluate the performance of this kind of networks under different conditions in an agile and cost-effective manner. Nevertheless, the typical complexity and learning curve of network simulators hinder their use, thus making it difficult to make the most out of them. In order to solve this problem, this paper presents two web applications that have been developed to ease the execution of simulations of NB-PLC (Narrowband) networks (based on PRIME - PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) and of MV-BPL (Broadband Power Line over Medium Voltage) cells. These applications represent the first steps towards offering PLC simulations-as-a-Service, which could bring benefits to the research community, academic environments, and the industry.

AMIs (Advanced Metering Infrastructures) present an important role in Smart City environments, especially from the point of view of distribution and customers, offering control and monitoring capabilities. The use of PLC (Power Line Communication) technology offers a wide range of advantages in AMI, including not needing to deploy an additional communication infrastructure. However, the electrical network was not initially designed for communications, as these networks pose problems depending on the connected loads, such as network impedance variation, frequency selectivity or noise. For this reason, the use of simulators is proposed to facilitate the deployments based on PLC networks, and analysis and diagnosis tools for the identification of problems in operating networks are also required. This paper presents a toolkit for evaluating and analyzing the performance of PLC networks. This toolkit is composed of SimPRIME, a simulator for the evaluation of NB-PLC PRIME (PoweR line Intelligent Metering Evolution) networks’ performance, SimBPL, a simulator for the evaluation of MV-BPL (Broadband Power Line over Medium Voltage) cells’ performance, and PRIME Analytics, a forensics tool that allows diagnosis of communication problems in PRIME operational networks based on traffic traces. The toolkit has been developed throughout several research projects in close collaboration with DSOs (Distribution System Operators) and equipment manufacturers, so they provide solutions to actual problems of these industry key players and have been adapted to facilitate their use. As a result, the tools are accessible through web applications to increase their usability, portability, and scalability. These applications represent the first steps in offering PLC simulation and analysis as a service that could benefit the research community, academia, and industry.

Future power grids need to be flexible on the demand side to develop a credible energy policy, and in particular the integration of renewable. This objective will need a more active consumer. The demonstration of customer capabilities is an important challenge for small and medium-sized segments, since their potential (contribution to load curve) is undoubtedly of interest. REDYD-2050 (http://www.redyd2050-der.eu/) is a research network funded by Spanish Government (2015–2017) that integrates seven groups that develop research in key technologies to achieve an integral development of demand response (DR). This article presents the objectives of the network, including integrating technologies and proposing innovative solutions to DR concerns such as modelling and aggregation, automation, application of ICT, implementation in markets, price and consumption forecasts, or monitoring and verification.

Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring is a set of monitoring techniques consisting of reading electrical activity generated by the nervous system structures during surgeries. In order to guarantee signal quality, contact impedance between the sensing electrodes and the patient’s skin needs to be as low as possible. Hence, monitoring this impedance while signals are measured is an important feature of current medical devices. The most commonly used technique involves injection of a known current and measurement of the voltage drop in the contact interface. This method poses several problems, such as power consumption (critical in battery-powered systems), frequency dependency and regulation issues, which are overcome by using a passive method. The fundamentals of the method proposed in this paper are based on the utilization of the variation suffered by the input random signal when a known resistance is connected in parallel to the input terminals of the low-noise amplifier (LNA) of the analog front-end of the acquisition system. Controlling the connection of the resistors and computing the root mean square of the LNA output voltage has been proved to be a useful tool to assess that the contact impedance is suitably low, allowing the user to know if the neural measurements obtained are valid.

PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) is a Narrowband – PowerLine Communication (NB-PLC) technology widely used in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in Spain and overseas. PRIME networks are formed by one base node (which is part of the AMI data concentrator) and many service nodes (smart meters). The technology allows some smart meters to work as relays (switches), to extend coverage and improve communications performance, and is defined to be plug&play. Thus, whenever a new node joins the network, it listens to the channel waiting for beacons from the concentrator or the switches. If it does not hear anything, it sends kind of SOS message, which makes whatever service node that hear it to send a message to the concentrator requesting being promoted to switch. PRIME specification says nothing, however, on how the concentrator chooses the switch from the possible candidates, this belonging to the know-how of the meter manufacturers. In this paper, we propose several policies to do so and evaluate their impact on the network performance by using the PRIME network simulator SimPRIME. Although there are already publications on optimal positioning of switches in PRIME networks, typically it will not be possible to choose their positioning, so from the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first research work that tackle the issue as it happens in practice, what makes the obtained insights more useful.

Many simulation tools for Powerline Communication technologies have been developed during the last years with the aim of evaluating and improving their performance, as an alternative to more expensive, less flexible, and more complex-to-manage physical testbeds. However, how significant are the results coming from such simulation tools? Answering to this question by analyzing how well the model behind the simulations fits reality is especially complicated for such harsh communication scenarios as Powerline Communication networks. Hence, this paper proposes a methodology for doing so experimentally. In addition, the proposed methodology is applied to assess the well-known simulator SimPRIME by comparing statistically the results of simulating a real Powerline Communication network belonging to an operational Spanish Advanced Metering Infrastructure with measurements taken during the operation of such a network. Since the computed confidence intervals overlap, it can be concluded that the results coming from the simulator fit this specific real scenario under the conditions of the considered time period. Although the obtained results contribute to legitimate the research work that have been conducted with SimPRIME throughout the last years, the conclusions of this study cannot be generalized to any scenario without performing more experiments, which opens an opportunity to future research work.

The paper deals with the damaging effects produced by impulsive noise in PLC transmissions and proposes a cancellation scheme using difference-set-based compressive sensing. Authors focus on a popular narrow-band PLC solution to evaluate its performance: PRIME. A simulation environment based on Matlab was developed to analyze PRIME’s behavior in an impulsive noise environment. To model the transmission channel, Middleton’s Class-A noise model was used in conjunction with noise parameters reported in the literature for the narrow-banded spectrum. The performance is measured in terms of bit error rate versus signal to noise ratio. Although the use of compressive sensing to cancel impulsive noise in communications has already been proposed in other studies, this paper details a modification based on Partial Fourier Matrix indexing according to difference sets. Results from simulations report an almost complete cancellation of the impulsive noise effects. The analysis is done studying the achieved bit error rate as a function of the signal to noise ratio at the receiver.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures are at the heart of emerging Smart Grid scenarios with high penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The scalability of such ICT infrastructures is a key factor for the large scale deployment of the aforementioned Smart Grid solutions, which could not be ensured by small-scale pilot demonstrations. This paper presents a novel methodology that has been developed in the scope of the H2020 project InteGrid, which enables the scalability analysis of ICT infrastructures for Smart Grids. It is based on the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM) framework, which enables a standardized and replicable approach. This approach consists of two consecutive steps: a qualitative analysis that aims at identifying potential bottlenecks in an ICT infrastructure; and a quantitative analysis of the identified critical links under stress conditions by means of simulations with the aim of evaluating their operational limits. In this work the proposed methodology is applied to a cluster of solutions demonstrated in the InteGrid Slovenian pilot. This pilot consists of a Large Customer Commercial Virtual Power Plant (VPP) that provides flexibility in medium voltage for tertiary reserve and a Traffic Light System (TLS) to validate such flexibility offers. This approach creates an indirect Transmission System Operator (TSO)—Distribution System Operator (DSO) coordination scheme.

This study analyzes the performance of power-line communications for sending open automated demand response (OpenADR) signals. In particular, we study main channel disturbances that can affect end-to-end communications and which have not been previously studied in detail. Our analysis takes into account physical phenomena, such as background and impulsive noise sources, channel attenuation, and multipath effects, and considers the physical, network, and applications layers of the communications structure. The performance of the physical layer is the basis for computing the packet error rate. In analyzing application performance, we focus specifically on the latency in several communication environments. If a channel is impaired only by background noise, latencies are less than 40 seconds. With the addition of impulsive noise in the channel, this value increases as long as 68 seconds. Using these figures, we find that power-line technology is more suitable for "slow" demand programs, such as day-ahead or day-of curtailments, rather than ancillary services markets, which require near-real-time communication.

PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) is a Narrowband Powerline Communication (NB-PLC) technology widely deployed in the last mile of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in Spain (Iberdrola, Union Fenosa), which is also quickly spreading globally. The present paper addresses the evaluation of the two medium access control mechanisms used in this technology: the Shared Contention Period (SCP), where all nodes content to access the channel; and the Contention Free Period (CFP), where time slots are reserved in order to guarantee some transmission opportunities. Whereas the SCP is the default behavior given its simplicity, the use of the CFP may be necessary when using applications that require a given level of Quality of Service (QoS). The paper first describes how the CFP has been implemented according to the standard in the PRIME network simulator SimPRIME. Moreover, the paper asseses how combining different number of nodes in the SCP and CFP affects the network performance in a series of illustrative scenarios. Results from simulations point out that, when all nodes transmit together in the SCP, it yields better network performance than using the CFP in general; and especially in highly populated networks. However, the paper also highlights trade-off solutions that allow guaranteeing QoS to certain nodes without compromising the performance of the rest of the network. Additionally, the paper proposes an amendment to the standard to increase the number of nodes that can use the CFP under the previous assumption.

Advanced Metering Infrastructures (AMI) represent one of the first steps in the Smart Grid process, where Power Line Communication (PLC) is emerging as the most costeffective solution since it allows reusing electric infrastructures as communication channel. However, the performance of this technology is highly affected by the characteristics of the existing distribution network. This article presents a thorough sensitivity analysis to assess the operating limits of smart metering applications for multiple representative configurations of low voltage (LV) networks based on a PLC simulation framework that integrates DLMS/COSEM and PRIME standards. The number of registered nodes and the time to read all meters have been defined as Key Performance Indicators to assess the communication performance. The conclusions drawn from this study provide useful information for the integration of smart meter applications that take advantage of AMI under different local conditions.

Power line communication has recently attracted the attention of energy companies as a useful and natural technology for building the advanced metering infrastructure. In this context, device language message specification/companion specification for energy metering (DLMS/COSEM) is an increasingly popular standardised application protocol for communication between utilities and their customers. This study analyses the communication performance that can be expected when using the power line communication technology, powerline intelligent metering evolution (PRIME), to send DLMS/COSEM messages. Physical phenomena - such as background and impulsive noise sources, channel attenuation and multi-path effect - are taken into account during the first step in the evaluation of this technology's communication performance in the physical layer. This metric is then used in upper layers to compute the packet error rate. An analysis is carried out at the application layer in terms of expected latency in different communication environments. Several simulations are performed in a European low-voltage topology to compute the number of metres that can be read within 15 min. These simulations were carried out using MATLAB and OMNeT++ software.

The present work analyzes and compares two popular standards for data transmission over power line networks: PRIME and G3. A complete and detailed description of both standards is presented together with simulation results of their performance in a power line environment. In order to create an accurate analogy of the transmission channel, background and asynchronous impulsive noises are included using previous results from literature. Simulation results show how PRIME and G3 behave in several noisy environments. Finally, with respect to PRIME, a proposal is made to increase its performance in a hardly impulsive noise channel.

In modern power systems, co-simulation is proposed as an enabler for analyzing the interactions between disparate systems. This paper introduces the co-simulation platform Virtual Grid Integration Laboratory (VirGIL) including Hardware-in-the-Loop testing, and demonstrates its potential to assess demand response strategies. VirGIL is based on a modular architecture using the Functional Mock-up Interface industrial standard to integrate new simulators. VirGIL combines state-of-the-art simulators in power systems, communications, buildings, and control. In this work, VirGIL is extended with a Hardware-in-the-Loop component to control the ventilation system of a real 12-story building in Denmark. VirGIL capabilities are illustrated in three scenarios: load following, primary reserves and load following aggregation. Experimental results show that the system can track one minute changing signals and it can provide primary reserves for up-regulation. Furthermore, the potential of aggregating several ventilation systems is evaluated considering the impact at distribution grid level and the communications protocol effect.

The fact that the electrical grid represents a critical and complex infrastructure has prevented it from experiencing major breakthroughs during decades. Therefore, some problems and inefficiencies have been carried around for a long while, up to the point that traditional electrical grid is far away from being prepared to face incoming challenges, such as properly integrating the foreseen high penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), mainly intermittent and stochastic renewable generation, electric vehicles and energy storage, or proactively controlling the energy demand bymeans of the so-called Demand Response (DR) programs. As a result, the electrical grid is currently undergoing slowly but surely its inexorablemetamorphosis under the new paradigm of the so-called Smart Grid. This metamorphosis basically entails evolving from a highly centralized and static system, where few energy generators supply electricity to a huge number of consumption points without exchanging information in real time, into a highly distributed and dynamic system, with many low capacity, geographically distributed generators, which are able to communicate with the consumption points in order to coordinate and optimize their operation. Ensuring the balance and stability of the electrical grid under this new paradigm requires the deployment of a vast number of sensors and actuators which will generate an unprecedented huge amount of data. Thus, highperformance, reliable, secure, and scalable communications networks and Information Technologies (IT) systems play a central role in the Smart Grid, which is driving the next wave of research and innovation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The aim of this special issue was to gather high-quality cutting-edge research papers addressing the use of distributed sensor and actuator networks in SmartGrids, including topics such as novel ICT architectures, wireless and wired communications technologies, interoperability and conformance testing, big data and analytics, and cloud computing, and applications such as Advanced Metering Infrastructures (AMIS), Demand Response (DR), Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS), or transportation electrification. The special issue has attracted the submission of 17 papers. After a thorough peer-review process, seven papers have been accepted for publication. The topics covered in these papers range from Advanced Metering Infrastructures and Demand Response to substation automation and smart lighting, including wireless and powerline communications networks and cybersecurity.

Machine-to-Machine communications networks for Smart Grids must meet specific requirements from both technical and economic perspectives. Power Line Communications are indeed winning momentum in this area because they provide a great trade-off between both dimensions. In particular, Broadband Power Line Communications over Medium-Voltage distribution grids are of special interest to Distribution System Operators because they present advantages such as keeping the communications infrastructure largely under their control or reducing the number of required back-haul connections. However, both deploying one of these cells or an alternative solution and the design and planning of such cells involve complex decisions, so tools to support making them are required. This paper presents a novel tool which allows varying most of the technical parameters that influence such cells in a user-friendly-manner and observing the impact on their performance in terms of the Round Trip Time between each node of the cell and the so-called Gateway.

The Smart Grid represents a revolution especially at distribution and customer levels, bringing monitoring and control capabilities, traditionally available up to the primary substations, down to the secondary substations, and beyond. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications networks are key to enable managing the huge number of sensors and actuators distributed all over the low voltage and medium voltage networks. Such M2M communications networks must meet demanding requirements from the technical perspective (e.g., low latency, high availability), since eventually the stability of the grid may rely on them, and from the economic perspective (e.g., low deployment and operational costs), due to the huge volume of devices to be monitored and controlled. Thus, Power Line Communications (PLC) technologies are winning momentum in these scenarios because they represent a great trade-off between both perspectives. However, electrical networks also represent a harsh communications medium, mainly because they are not designed for data communications, but for power transmission. Consequently, although much research has been carried out on this topic recently, PLC networks still present technological problems and challenges. This paper highlights some of the most relevant challenges in this area and presents a set of cutting-edge software tools which are being developed to overcome them, facilitating the planning, deployment, and operation of this kind of networks.

PLC is gaining prominence as a solution for Smart Grid developments. However, several aspects still require further research and analysis. Among the different solutions, PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) standard is one of the most popular and extended implementations. This paper analyses the performance impact caused by the polling strategy utilized in an auto meter reading (AMR) process for a PRIME PLC network. In particular, the number of connections that the master node is able to manage simultaneously is studied. The time required to read all the meters in the network is utilized as performance metric. In order to replicate the performance of a PRIME's network, a co-simulation framework that combines Matlab and OMNeT++ has been used. This architecture allows to take into account both physical phenomena and control and application message management. Simulated topologies represent a general European low-voltage network. Results highlight the importance of selecting an adequate number of simultaneous connections in order to optimize the use of the channel.

This paper analyses the performance impact caused by the selection of a node to act as a switch in a PLC network using PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) standard. This performance is measured in terms of application data message roundtrip. Additionally, a decision algorithm is proposed in order to identify the most favorable switch, fulfilling a gap left open in the aforementioned standard. This decision is based on path cost information transmitted by the nodes. Moreover, a modification for the definition of these costs is proposed with the purpose of enhancing the algorithm's accomplishments. In order to replicate the performance of a PRIME's network, a co-simulation framework that combines Matlab and OMNeT++ has been used. This architecture allows for taking into account both physical phenomena and control and application message management. Simulated topologies emulate a general European low-voltage network. Results show that, by using the proposed algorithm and costs definitions, the overall network performance is enhanced.

One of the most serious disturbances in Power Line Communications (PLC) is produced by the presence of impulsive noise sources in the transmission line. This paper analyses how impulsive noise affects the PLC communication's performance from a theoretical and simulation point of view and proposes a signal processing method to enhance its robustness. Authors focus on a popular narrowband PLC solution to evaluate the improvement: PRIME. A simulation framework based on Matlab was developed to assess PRIME's behaviour in an impulsive noise environment. In order to recreate a realistic scenario, narrowband noise parameters reported in the literature are used in a Middleton's Class-A noise model. The performance is measured in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) as a function of the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). Additionally, compressive sensing (CS) techniques are proposed as a method to improve PRIME's performance in such environment. The application of this technique has only been proposed for broadband PLC technologies in the literature before. Results from simulations report an SNR gain of 9dB for the most robust communication mode. Moreover, since no modification is required in the transmitted signal, the proposed CS configuration can be applied to already existing systems and it is backwards compatible.

This paper proposes a simulation's architecture that allows for the analysis of the performance when using the Power Line Communication's technology. In concrete, it studies the viability of PRIME' standard, to send Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) messages through a low voltage network. In contrast with other studies, physical phenomena-such as background and impulsive noise sources, channel attenuation and multipath effect-are taken into account by Mat lab simulations. Additionally, OMNeT++ network simulator is used to model the telematic effects that occur in the communication process. As an example of the kind of output that can be obtained by the proposed architecture, the paper analyses the end-to-end's performance at application layer in terms of round-trip latency. Several simulations are performed in a European low-voltage network topology to compute the number of meters that can be polled within 15 minutes. Additionally, one experiment tries to determine the optimal position of one of the key nodes in PRIME's networks: the SWITCH node.

The presented paper addresses the problem of impulsive noise interferences in Power Line Communication (PLC) systems. In order to provide a realistic scenario, a popular narrow band PLC solution has been chosen: PRIME. System's performance is evaluated under different impulsive noise environments. Simulations show how, even when the high-powerful time impulses hits a few signal samples, the noise energy corrupts most of the symbol in the OFDM spectrum. This affects directly the performance in terms of BER vs. SNR despite using the most robust communication mode in PRIME. Additionally, two common techniques are proposed to increase the performance under this kind of disturbances. The paper shows detailed figures with the improvement and a discussion of their usability.

New communication schemes are being developed to be used for Automatic Metering Reading (AMR). For this AMR system, one of the most popular approach is using power lines as a communication medium to inject a narrow band spectrum. PRIME is a new Physical and Data Link layers specification for powerline communication in the last mile released in the last two years. The main problem that this technology has to deal with is the severe attenuation that signals suffer due to reflections and fadings. Another important handicap is the time varying response of the channel produced by impulsive noise.