Prototype of a PLC based communication system for residential electrical consumption measurement

This paper presents design of a proprietary master-slave topology communication protocol based in Power Line Communication technology, thus using the electrical grid as its communication channel. Said protocol uses half-duplex and broadcast transmission and was implemented over a measurement system composed of a hub and three remote electric meters; this system is capable of individualizing electrical consumption measurements obtained for each one of the MTUs. Measurement devices were designed to operate at a 115 Vrms - 60 Hz phase voltage, allowing the measurement of loads of up to 1400W; the hub is able to visualize energy consumption of up to 99.99 kWh.