Remote Detection of illegal usage of Electricity using Power Line Communication (PLC) presented during my masters.

1. An application of PLC
- Remote Detection of illegalusage of Electricity
By :
SujitKr. Nayak
ecTech

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Plan of the Talk…
 Introduction to PLC
 Idea about AMR
 Methods of illegal usage of Electricity
 The detection system
 System Review
 Conclusion
 References

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Introduction to PLC
 Power Line Communication (PLC) is the technique in
which the communication is takes place over the same
line that deliver electricity.
 In this technique, a high frequency carrier is injected
onto the power line.
 The data to be sent is modulated with the injected
carrier.
 It has a wide range of application possibilities. Automatic
Meter Reading (AMR) is an important among all.

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Automatic Meter Reading (AMR)
 AMR a very useful application of PLC.
 This provides remote recording of usage of
electricity of an user.
 The reading of the Meter is translated into
digital form in order to send the metering data
from the user to a Base station.

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Contd…(AMR)
Incident Ray
Reflected Ray
Optical Sensor
Digital Signal
Output
Marker
Rotating Disc in
Meter Housing
Fig: Electromechanical movements to Digital signal Converter

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Contd…(AMR)
 The Digital metering data is send to the Base
station using PLC modems.
 The Base station unit consists of Modems,
Receivers, Data Concentrators, Controller,
Host upload link, and Host Computer.

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AMR system setup…
BASE
STATION
MODEM MODEM METER
MODEM METER
Fig: AMR communication setup

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Methods of illegal usage of electricity
 Using Mechanical Objects
 Using a fixed Magnet
 Using external phase before the meter
 Switching the energy cable at meter
connector box

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The Detection & Control System…
Fig: Schematicillustration of detection system of illegal electricity usage
Distribution
Transformer
Host PLC
PLC
kWh
PLC
To Control Center
220v AC
Energy
Meter
Subscriber 1 Subscriber 2
Subscriber N
PLC
kWh
PLC
Energy
Meter
PLC
Energy
Meter
PLC
kWh

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The Detection & Control System…
 In order to detect illegal usage of electricity, a PLC
modem and an energy meter chip for every
subscriber are added to an existing AMR system.
 The detector PLC s and energy meters is placed at
the connection point between distribution main lines
and subscriber’s line.
 The recorded data in kilowatt-hour meters for every
subscriber are sent to host PLC modem via PLC
modems, which is placed in subscriber’s locations.
 On the other hand, energy meter chips reads the
energy in kilowatt-hours and also send the data to
host PLC unit.

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The Detection & Control System…
 Hence, there are two recorded energy data in host
PLC unit, one, which comes from the AMR-PLC,
and the other, which comes from the PLC modem at
the connection points.
 These two recorded energy data are compared in
the host PLC. If there is any difference between two
readings, an error signal is generated (i.e. There is
an illegal usage ). Then the subscriber address and
error signal are combined and sent to the central
control unit.

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The Detection & Control System…
X Subscriber
PLC
Modem
Energy meter chip
PLC
Modem
kWh
Meter
Host
PLC
Modem
uP Logic
To control center
Connector Box for X Subscriber
Host PLC unit
Mainpowerline220VAC
Fig: Illegal detector
system for one
subscriber

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Working of the System…
HOST
PLC
MODEM
L
PLC
Optical
Sensor
PLC
Energy
Meter
I.L
KWh Meter
S
Power Line
Disk
Fig: Modeling of the detection system

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Working of the System…
 The energy value at the electromechanical kilowatt-
hour meter is converted to digital data using by
optical reflector sensor.
 An illegal load may be connected to the power line
before the kilowatt-hour meter via an S switch.
 While only for a legal load in the system, two meters
are accorded each other to compensate for any
error readings. The host PLC unit reads two
recorded data coming from metering PLC units.

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Working of the System…
 If the S switch is closed, the illegal load is
connected to the system, and therefore two
recorded energy values are different from
each other.
 The host PLC unit generate a error signal
when it received two different records from
the same subscriber. This is the detection of
the illegal usage of that user.

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Working of the System…
 Data signaling between PLC modems has a
protocol, which includes a header, address,
energy value data, error correction bits, and
other serial communication bits such as parity
and stop bits. The protocol may also be
changed according to the properties of the
required system

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Parameters on which the system depends
The relations between frequency, length, and bit-error probability are
given in these figures shown.
Fig: Effect of frequency on Bit Error rate Fig: Effect of line length (meters) on Bit-error probability

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System Review…
 Every user has two PLC modems; one is for AMR and the other is
used to send the data from energy meter chip to host PLC modem.
 The energy meter must be installed in the connection box between a
home line and main power lines.
 The host PLC unit must be placed after the distribution transformer.
 Operating software must be designed for the information of every
subscriber in every sub power network (subscriber identification
number, billing address etc).
 The system has two values of the energy consumption for every
user, if these two values are different, the user is an illegal one.
 The discussed system is for only one distributed power network and
it should be repeated for all distribution power networks.
 All host units in each distribution transformer may be connected to
only one main center station via phone lines, fiber-optic cable, or RF
links.

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System Limitations….
 It can not be used at high voltage power
lines.
 It is unable to detect any illegal load
connected in between the distribution
transformer and the energy meter.

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Conclusion…
 If AMR and detector system are used
together illegal usage of electricity might be
detected.
 Once this proposed detection systems are
implemented in real power lines, the
distribution losses in India can be reduced
effectively.

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References…
 I. H. Cavdar, “A Solution to Remote Detection of Illegal Electricity
Usage via Power Line Communications”, IEEE Transactions On Power Delivery,
Vol. 19, No. 4, October 2004.
 Agustín Zaballos, Alex Vallejo, Marta Majoral, and Josep M. Selga,
“Survey and Performance Comparison of AMR Over PLC
Standards”, IEEE Transactions On Power Delivery, Vol. 24, No. 2, April 2009.
 I. H. Cavdar, “Performance analysis of FSK power line
communications systems over the time-varying channels:
Measurements and modeling”, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 19, pp. 111–117, Jan.
2004.
 N. Miura, H. Sato, H. Narita, and M. Takaki, “Automatic meter
reading system by power line carrier communications”, IEE Proceedings,
Vol. 137, Pt. C, No. I , January 1990.

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Thank U…