Data communication over the smart grid

The emerging smart grid system requires high speed sensing of data from all the sensors on the system within a few power-cycles. The Advanced Metering Infrastructure is a simple example of such a system where all the meters on a certain grid must be able to provide the necessary information to the master head end within a very short duration (fraction of a second for real time load control). Wireless solutions for the smart grid systems have been implemented, but cannot access all grid locations, especially enclosed ones. In this paper, we present an interactive, OFDMA based communication system optimized for operation over the low voltage power lines in the CENELEC bands A and B. A channel model representing statistical time-varying, and frequency selective powergrid channels and noise is presented. Using this model, an OFDMA based transceiver is developed that is capable of providing smart grid like access capacity to the head end connected to multiple meters. The transceiver is optimized based on the channel model and the characteristics derived from the structure of the grid.