Application of PLC for the Control and the Protection of Future Distribution Networks

The paper shows the great possibilities offered by PLC applied to the medium voltage power networks. The paper focuses the attention on the need for new strategies of control and protection of future distribution networks with high penetration of distributed generator (DG) and points out how PLC could have a key role among the technologies that are expected to be applied. In the paper, three chief proposals of application of PLC will be illustrated: the co-ordinated voltage control, a protection system to prevent dispersed generation islanding and the control of the interface device at the point of common coupling for a micro-grids distribution structure. By means of multiconductor matrix procedure already presented by the authors in previous researches, the feasibility of power line carrier applications will be demonstrated.