PRIME CONSIDERATIONS IN POWER LINE CARRIER SEPARATION SCHEME

Power Line Carrier (PLC) has been around longer than we think. For example, at the turn of the 20th century, a 500 Hz signal on the power line was used to control the street lights in New York City. The transmitters and receivers were originally powered with M-G (motor-generator) sets with a tuning coil 3feet in diameter. As technology progressed, so did the PLC equipment. There are still many PLC’s transmitters and receiver sets in use today that utilize vacuum tubes, or discrete transistor logic but these are being replaced with state of the art components such as digital signal processors and other VLSI components. This paper will present the basic principles of Power Line Carrier to assist engineers who are new to this field as well as provide some good reference material for those experienced individuals who desire refresher information. It will focus on the application of carrier in protective relaying schemes.