ABSTRACT

Power line communication (PLC) presents an interesting and economical solution for
Automatic Meter Reading (AMR). If an AMR system via PLC is set in a power delivery
system, a detection system for illegal electricity usage may be easily added in the existing
PLC network. In the detection system, the second digitally energy meter chip is used and the
value of energy is stored. The recorded energy is compared with the value at the main kilo
Watt-hour meter. In the case of the difference between two recorded energy data, an error
signal is generated and transmitted via PLC network. The detector and control system is
proposed. The architecture of the system and their critical components are given. The
measurement results are given.
Power line communication (PLC) is of great interest concerning home automation.
Generally homes and buildings automation is realized through systems which need a special
transmission medium such as pair of twisted wire, coaxial cables or optical fibers. Recent
technological developments led to power line medium equipments which send and receive
information with some reliability. The main advantage of a PLC system is that the physical
medium is already installed, making it an attractive alternative in all buildings without
prerouted data infrastructure, like historical buildings. The development of power line
communication system requires detailed knowledge of the channel properties, such as
transfer function, interference scenario and channel capacity in order to choose suitable
transmission methods. This paper deals with the typical channel properties like access
impedance, noise scenario and modeling approach for the designing of PLC system.
Eventually an evaluation of different modulation schemes is carried to optimize PLC system
design.
This report describes detector system for illegal electricity usage using the power lines
based on the research work-taking place at the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI),
Bangalore. The target of this study is to discover new and possible solutions for this problem.

CONTENTS
Chapter

Title

Page no

1.

INTRODUCTION

01

2.

DETECTION OF ILLEGAL ELECTRICITY USAGE

02

3.

2.1 METHODS OF ILLEGAL ELECTRICITY USAGE

02

2.2 BUILDING BLOCKS FOR DETECTION

02

2.3 POWER LINE COMMUNICATION (PLC)

07

2.4 CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS

09

2.5 POWER LINE CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS

10

2.6 MODULATION SCHEMES FOR PLC SYSTEM DESIGN

12

2.7 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF POWER LINE

13

DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEM

3.1 SIMULATION

15
17

4.

OVER VIEW OF THE PROPOSED DETECTOR SYSTEM

19

5.

CONCLUSION

21

REFERENCES

22

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
India, the largest democracy with an estimated population of about 1.04 billion, is on
a road to rapid growth in economy. Energy, particularly electricity, is a key input for
accelerating economic growth. The theft of electricity is a criminal offence and power
utilities are losing billions of rupees in this account. If an Automatic Meter Reading system
via Power line Communication is set in a power delivery system, a detection system for
illegal electricity usage is possible .Power line communications (PLC) has many new service
possibilities on the data transferring via power lines without use of extra cables. Automatic
Meter Reading (AMR) is a very important application in these possibilities due to every user
connected each other via modems, using power lines. AMR is a technique to facilitate remote
readings of energy consumption.
Power line communication (PLC) is of great interest concerning home automation.
Generally homes and buildings automation is realized through systems which need a special
transmission medium such as pair of twisted wire, coaxial cables or optical fibers. Recent
technological developments led to power line medium equipments which send and receive
information with some reliability. The main advantage of a PLC system is that the physical
medium is already installed, making it an attractive alternative in all buildings without
prerouted data infrastructure, like historical buildings. The development of power line
communication system requires detailed knowledge of the channel properties, such as
transfer function, interference scenario and channel capacity in order to choose suitable
transmission methods. This paper deals with the typical channel properties like access
impedance, noise scenario and modelling approach for the designing of PLC system.
Eventually an evaluation of different modulation schemes is carried to optimize PLC system
design.
The following sections will describe the proposed detection and control system for
illegal electricity usage using the power lines. The scheme is based on the research worktaking place at Central Power Research Unit (CPRI), Bangalore .In this section the
discussion is on how a subscriber can illegally use the electricity and the basic building
blocks for the detection using power line communication.

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CHAPTER 2
DETECTION OF ILLEGAL ELECTRICITY USAGE
In this section the discussion is on how a subscriber can illegally use the electricity
and the basic building blocks for the detection using power line communication.

2.1 Methods of illegal electricity usage

In illegal usage a subscriber illegally use electricity in the following ways,
1) Using the mechanical objects:
A subscriber can use some mechanical objects to prevent the revolution of a meter, so
that disk speed is reduced and the recorded energy is also reduced.
2) Using a fixed magnet:
A subscriber can use a fixed magnet to change the electromagnetic field of the current
coils. As is well known, the recorded energy is proportional to electromagnetic field.
3) Using the external phase before meter terminals:
This method gives subscribers free energy without any record.
4) Switching the energy cables at the meter
connector box:
In this way, the current does not pass through the current coil of the meter, so the
meter does not record the energy consumption.
Although all of the methods explained above may be valid for electromechanical
meters, only the last two methods are valid for digital meters. Therefore, this problem should
be solved by electronics and control techniques.

2.2 Building blocks for detection:

Automatic Meter Reading (AMR): The AMR system starts at the meter. Some
means of translating readings from rotating meter dials, or cyclometer style meter dials, into
digital form is necessary in order to send digital metering data from the customer site to a
central point.
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Fig 2: Electromechanical movement to digital signal conversion.

In most cases, the meter that is used in an AMR system is the same ordinary meter
used for manual reading but the difference with conventional energy meter is the addition of
some device to generate pulses relating to the amount of consumption monitored, or
generates an electronic, digital code that translates to the actual reading on the meter dials.
One such technique using optical sensor is shown in above fig
Three main components of AMR system are:
1. Meter interface module with power supply, meter sensors, controlling electronics and a
communication interface that allows data to be transmitted from this remote device to a
central location. In many instances, this communication interface is bi-directional and allows
central office signals to be received by the remote unit as well. Every electric, gas or water
meter must have such an interface unit to be remotely read. Some key components of the
remote device may be shared by more than one meter without regard for the type of meter;
i.e.., electric, gas or water.
2. Communications systems used for the transmission, or telemetry, of data and control send
signals between the meter interface units and the central office. Typically, such
communications take the form of telephone, power line carrier (plc), radio frequency (RF), or
cable television. The system components in the communications system depend on the
communication media used
3. Central office systems equipment including modems, receivers, data concentrators,
controllers, host upload links, and host computer. Many utilities have for some time been
taking advantage of electronic meter reading systems using handheld data terminals that

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communicate with a central controller via phone lines. There is great similarity between the
host side electronic meter reading and automatic meter reading system function.

Fig 2.1 AMR communication setup

There are three major building block functions that the meter interface and related
electronics must perform. These are common to electric, gas and water Implementations.
First, an electromechanical or electro-optical interface must be incorporated into or attached
to the meter. This converts information conveyed by the meter's mechanical register indexes,
or dial readings, into electronic signals which may be processed, manipulated, stored and
transmitted. The second functional building block is a controller unit consisting of a lowvoltage power supply, signal processing electronics, microcomputer, random access memory
and program memory used to store the real-time run or operating system program. The
controller unit is used to process the signals originating from the meter's electromechanical or
electro-optical interface device. In effect, the controller unit converts the meter's
electromechanical interface device signals into computer type electronic digital
representations of the meters exact index or dial readings-much as a calculator converts
keypad entries into numbers appearing on the display. The controller's RAM memory
maintains an up-to-the-minute mirror image of the meter's dials and as the dials increment, so
do the numerical representations stored in RAM.
The third functional building block is the communication scheme and its associated
transmit/receive electronics. Generally, meter-to-utility host communications use one or more
transmission techniques: telephone, power line carrier, radio frequency through the airwaves,
or television cable. There are many sub-categories of each of these communication forms
having to do with data flow, modulation techniques, distance from remote site to central
station and data transmission rates. The AMR system starts at the meter. Some means of
translating readings from rotating meter dials, or cyclometer style meter dials, into digital
form is necessary in order to send digital metering data from the customer site to a central
point. In most cases, the meter that is used in an AMR System is the same ordinary meter
used for manual reading. The internal mechanism used for metering consumption is identical
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in both cases. The one difference is the addition of some device to generate pulses relating to
the amount of consumption monitored, or generate an electronic, digital code that translates
to the actual reading on the meter dials.
The four communication methods used for meter reading have various strengths and
weaknesses.
Telephone lines -Telephone lines are desirable from an economic point of view since most
electricity users in the country have telephone service. The telephone system provides an
ideal communication infrastructure for AMR systems due to simplicity of operation, quality
of data, high noise immunity, reliability and low cost, both at the remote site and the central
station. Telephone communications AMR systems are categorized by the method of call
initiation and initial data flow. The two most common forms are inbound communications and
outbound communications. With inbound communications, a unit at the customer site (usually
the controller or a modem connected to the controller) dials in to the central station system at
the utility without first receiving an interrogation message. The remote site unit initiates the
communication at a date and time programmed into the controller's memory. In the case of
tampering or system malfunctions, a call can be initiated to the utility's central station, where
the alarm condition will be received and processed. This approach takes advantage of the
fixed monthly charge for local calls that the customer is already paying. No additional
telephone access equipment is required. The disadvantages of inbound communications are
that the utility cannot obtain real-time data upon request, nor can the utility reprogram the
controller unit or issue control commands as in the case of connect-disconnect or energy
management, should these capabilities be incorporated into the system. Outbound
communications arc those where data communications are initiated by a central unit located
at the utility or at a local telephone company switching station. These systems respond to a
query and require central telephone switching equipment and test trunk lines. Telephone
company involvement is required to enable the utility's central station computer to dial out to
a customer's remote unit without ringing the customer's telephone. The advantage of this
approach is that these systems function in real time, as needed, which simplifies the
implementation of demand load recording surveys, status monitoring, etc. The primary
disadvantages to an outbound communications approach are the capital costs associated with
the telephone company's involvement and the recurring tariffs that telephone companies
charge. An additional complication arises in geographical areas served by one electric utility
and two or more telephone companies. A third approach is termed bidirectional
communications. In this case, communications are initiated from the remote site or the
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utility's central station. The advantages of both inbound and outbound communications are
incorporated in this system design. In the majority of cases, the inbound function is used,
thereby reducing telephone charges. Also, due to the decreased density of outbound traffic,
telephone company switchgear and test trunk lines are minimized.
Power line carrier -Power line carrier communications take place over the same lines that
deliver electricity. This technique involves injecting a high frequency AC carrier onto the
power line and modulating this carrier with data originating from the remote meter or central
station. Years of research, however, have not overcome the technical problems that preclude
this medium from being a cost effective solution over primary transmission lines. Power line
carrier techniques may be used successfully and cost effectively for short distances; i.e., from
a customers meter to a pole or surface mounted transformer. It is very expensive to pass this
data through a distribution transformer and onto the primary distribution lines and the
resulting communications is slow due to the narrow bandwidth and mono-directional
meaning data is transmitted from the meter to the utility but the utility cannot send data or
control signals back to the meter or associated devices at the subscriber side.
Radio frequency -Radio frequency, or RF, systems make use of small low power RF
transmitters or transceivers located at the controller. These may take advantage of licensed or
unlicensed portions of the RF spectrum and the effective radiated power of the transmitter
and the distances capable of being traversed will vary as a function of the frequency and
power of the remote transmitters and the receiving strategies employed. A variety of system
configurations have been field tested thus far. The most successful employs a mobile unit
operated in a van that sends a wakeup and transmit command to the remote meter units in its
range. The remote meter units pick up the signal and respond by sending back requested data
to the van's computer for later uploading and billing. This system is commercially available
for use with gas meters. A variation of this approach employs remote meter units that
regularly transmit every few seconds and a small portable receiver connected to a hand-held
data terminal. Two of the more exotic approaches (in 1992) involve use of a cellular
telephone network system and satellite communications.
The mobile receiver approach suffers the significant disadvantage of being effectively
mono-directional; thus, communication cannot be initiated from the utility's central office.
Therefore, systems of this type have limited function and relatively low feature/function cost
ratios and are not well suited for use by electric utilities.
Cable television communication -This communication approach uses existing cable
television lines to transmit data. Some tests have shown that this may be a cumbersome and
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expensive approach but some municipal utilities that own cable systems are undertaking this
type of communication. Additionally, many installed cable systems are not configured to pass
signals from the subscriber's site to a central facility. It is expensive to upgrade these systems
with wide-band bidirectional amplifiers and subscriber interactive taps. Cable television
should not be discounted, however, as a viable communications medium. Several municipal
electric utilities have purchased their local cable companies and upgraded systems consistent
with the needs of AMR. If these utilities sell AMR services to local gas and water utilities,
this approach can prove very viable. Future advances in cable will include bi-directional
digital signal transmission and much wider band width ultimately using fiber optics at which
point cable will be an ideal communications medium. The full-scale implementation of AMR
requires that a data communication network be established that effectively links every utility
customer with the utility's central office. The actual amount of AMR related data and its
frequency of transmission is very low. These factors contribute to the difficulties encountered
in the economic justification of AMR systems. There are, however, a myriad of services and
functions that can be accomplished through this communication system, some of which
significantly reduce a utility's operating costs and some of which can actually generate
additional revenues. The incremental cost associated with incorporating these functions in the
AMR system controllers is marginal. Payback can vary enormously. In theory, it is almost
possible to finance a full-scale AMR system installation through the resulting costs savings
and new revenue-producing services

2.3 Power line communication (PLC):

Power line carrier communications take place over the same lines that deliver
electricity. This technique involves injecting a high frequency AC carrier onto the power line
and modulating this carrier with data originating from the remote meter or central station.
Power line communications has many new service possibilities on the data transferring via
power lines without use of extra cables. AMR is a very important application in these
possibilities due to every user connected each other via power lines. In this power network,
every user connected to each other via modems with data originating from the remote meter
or central station.
Electrical power systems vary in configuration from country to country depending on
the state of the respective power sources and loads. The practice of using medium-voltage
(11-to-33kV) and low-voltage (100-to-400V) power distribution lines as high-speed PLC

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communication means and optical networks as backbone networks is commonplace. Under

normal service conditions, they can be broadly divided into open-loop systems, each with a
single opening, and tree systems with radial arranged lines. In the case of tree systems,
connection points for adjacent systems are provided in order that paths/loads may be
switched when necessary for operation. Additionally, in terms of distribution line types, there
are underground cables and overhead power distribution lines. Where transformers are
concerned, they can be divided into pole-mounted transformers, pad-mounted transformers
and indoor transformers.
High-speed PLC applications of the future include Automatic Meter Reading (AMR),
power system fault detection, power theft detection, leakage current detection, and the
measurement/control/energy-management of electrical power equipment for electrical power
companies, as well as home security, the remote- monitoring/control of electrical household
appliances, online games, home networks, and billing.
Technology development caused a real revolution inside the electric power
distribution industry. The Significant news came from the solution known as power line
communication (PLC) or broadband over power line communication (BPL) as solution for
data transmission transported by the electric grid. The advantages of PLC are obvious as no
additional wires are required because of the power lines being available in almost every
room. Each wall plug and each installation socket provides an access point to the power line
network.
However the power line is not at all an ideal communication channel. Large number
of experimental results shows that the low voltage distribution networks abounds with all
kinds of noises including background noise, narrowband noise and impulse noise and
attenuation of the transmitted signal is also the key impartment . Further, due to the fact that
the structure of the power distribution network is far from matching requirements, reflection
exists at some nodes in the network. This result a multipath effects. Therefore it is a real
challenge to realize data transmission over low voltage distribution network.
Power line carrier communications take place over the same lines that deliver
electricity. This technique involves injecting a high frequency AC carrier onto the power line
and modulating this carrier with data originating from the remote meter or central station.
Years of research, however, have not overcome the technical problems that preclude this
medium from being a cost effective solution over primary transmission lines. Power line
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carrier techniques may be used successfully and cost effectively for short distances; i.e., from
a customers meter to a pole or surface mounted transformer. It is very expensive to pass this
data through a distribution transformer and onto the primary distribution lines and the
resulting communications is slow due to the narrow bandwidth and mono-directional
meaning data is transmitted from the meter to the utility but the utility cannot send data or
control signals back to the meter or associated devices at the subscriber side.
2.4 CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS
Power lines constitute a rather hostile medium for data transmission. Varying
impedance, considerable noise and high attenuation are the main issues. The channel mixes
the nasty behaviour of a power line with that of a communication channel. The transmission
environment for PLC seems much worse than that for mobile communications, so we need to
not only utilize existing advanced technologies, but also create novel ones. Channel
characteristics can be both time and frequency dependent, and also dependent on the location
of transmitter and receiver in the specific power line infrastructure. Hence, the channel in
general is described as random time varying with a frequency-depended signal to noise ratio
(SNR) over the communication bandwidth.
Impedance is highly varying with frequency and ranges between a few ohms and a
few kilo ohms with peaks at some frequencies where the network behaves like a parallel
resonant circuit. In most frequency ranges the impedance shows inductive or capacitive
behaviour around 90 to 100. The net impedance is strongly influenced by the network
topology and connected loads, so we can say that the low voltage mains do not have
essentially characteristics impedance since loads being switched on and off randomly
introduce a change in impedance.
Communication signals at low frequency are propagated along the low voltage power
line through conducted emission with very little energy radiated from the line causing
interference to other communication services. Different noise sources, motors, radio signals
and power supplies result in a noise curve very much dependent on location and time.
Generally channel noise varies strongly with frequency, load, and time of day and
geographical location. The noise spectrum in frequency range up to 145 kHz

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2.5 POWER LINE CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS

[a].Disturbances
Sources of channel disturbances are different in the three voltage networks. Lightning,
circuit breaker operations and the transient produced within a power during the high activity
time, more switching-on and switching-off of the loads occur. Throughout the whole
frequency band of interest, the standard deviation during the high activity time is higher by
about 10dBm. Analysis of the measured spectra reveals that four types of disturbances,
besides the omnipresent background noise, are present in the power line, either occurring
alone or together.

Fig. 2.2 Mean Noise Level in a Flat of a HDB Block

Fig.2.3 Standard Deviation of Noise Level in a Flat of a HDB Block

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(i).Disturbance with a Smooth Spectrum

This type of disturbance is broadband in nature. The main source of this disturbance is small
motors with serial windings found in many household appliances.
(ii).Disturbance with Frequencies Synchronous to Power System Frequency
The main culprit of such disturbance is the silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) which switches
certain amount of times every 50Hz cycle. An example of an appliance containing a SCR is
the light dimmer. Remote controller boards (RCB) at the kWh meters of the same phase. Fig.
4 shows the main idea for the proposed system for the red phase
(iii).Single Event Impulse Disturbance
This type of disturbance is caused by all kinds of switching operations, such as the switching
phenomenon of thermostats. This disturbance affects the whole range of frequency band and
its duration is very short.
(iv).Narrow-band Disturbance
The narrow-band disturbance is periodic and non synchronous to the power system
frequency. It is usually generated by television sets and computer monitors. The repetition of
pulses depends on the screen scanning that varies among the television and computer monitor
standards. Switch mode power supplies also cause such disturbance.
[b].Signal Attenuation
(i).Coupling Loss
The signal experiences losses due to coupling circuits, both coupling-in and couplingout. Such loss is inevitable because direct injection of signals into the power lines is
impossible without isolation.
(ii).Branching Loss
There are losses due to the branching of circuits. In the case of transmission lines,
when a signal comes across a discontinuity, part of it gets transmitted and the other part gets
reflected. Branching causes discontinuities in the power lines. Reflection is undesirable as it
causes signal loss and often leads to echoing.
(iii).Line Loss
The power line has some impedance and its impedance depends on its size and length.
So, part of the signal loss will be due to the power lines. Of these three losses, coupling loss
can be reduced through better-designed coupling circuits. Line and branching losses are more
severe and are also very difficult to reduce. It is found that the severity of signal attenuation
generally decreases with increasing frequency in the EN 50065-1 A Band.

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2.6 MODULATION SCHEMES FOR PLC SYSTEM DESIGN

As the properties of power line channels differ considerably from other well known
channels, special care is necessary to select a modulation scheme that uses the high capacity
of these channels optimally and offers good noise robustness. The following section analyzes
some modulation schemes that come into consideration to find an optimal solution for PLC
systems.
A. Single Carrier Modulation for PLC
To modulate digital signals onto the power lines, we can use many of the same
techniques widely implemented in wireless communication. Basic modulation techniques
such as phase shift keying (PSK); Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), minimum shift keying
(MSK) and Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) can be used for low data rate
communication. Other more advanced techniques such as M-ary PSK (MPSK), M-ary
quardrature amplitude modulation (MQAM), M-ary FSK (MFSK) and orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) can be used when higher data rates are desired. A thorough
study of single carrier modulation techniques is given.
B. Spectrum Modulation
Spread spectrum techniques (SST) seem to be a good choice for PLC due to their
immunity against selective attenuation and all kinds of narrow band interference. An
additional interesting feature of SST, especially with regard to EMC is the low power spectral
density of the transmitted signals. Moreover, media access can be accomplished by code
division multiple access (CDMA), offering multiple access without global coordination or
synchronization.
As with CDMA, the entire frequency band is open to each participant, so access does
not have to be coordinated. Each active participant, however, increases the background noise
for all others. The more participants become active, the higher the probability of mutual
disturbance. Therefore, there is a trade-off between quality of service and permissible number
of active participants. The crucial figure in this context is the so called processing gain (PG),
the ratio of the bandwidth of the transmitted signal and the message bandwidth after
conventional modulation. Pg should be between 10 and 100 for acceptable performance. The
number of participants must, however, always remain smaller than PG; otherwise, robustness
against interference is completely lost. In a properly designed CDMA system so called
graceful degradation is found, indicating that each new participant will generate only a small
well controlled portion of interference for the others.
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For the reasons listed above, most experts in the field have concentrated on
multicarrier techniques, in particular orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).
C. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDM was adopted by the many researchers because of its robustness to noise and the
fact that a parallel FDM sub bands. The main problem is using OFDM in wireless networks is
frequency offset, caused by doppler effects when the user is moving. The Doppler Effect wills
cause performance degradation, but in power line networks there are no moving devices, and thus
no Doppler effect. The other problem is timing offset, which can be mitigated by offset estimation
and compensation. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technique
can achieve much higher bandwidth efficiency than spread spectrum systems and it allows an
extremely flexible allocation of a given channel bandwidth , because of its information allocation
property to different carrier sub bands, OFDM is very robust against narrow band interferences
and frequency selective fading. Furthermore combined with a well designed interleaving and
forward error correction coding schemes, OFDM can be robust against impulsive noise, so it is
taken for granted that the OFDM can be an ideal choice to achieve high rate digital transmission
over low voltage power line.

2.7 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF POWER LINE

Some advantages of the power line communication
i) The power grid is ubiquitous. Usually where human habitation exists, it is covered by low
voltage network, owing the wide geographic coverage of this network.
ii) The power grid offers last-mile connectivity. As long as there is a wall socket or outlet, house
appliances and electrical industrial equipment are connected to the low voltage network. With
Internet capable electronic equipment, even people are connected to this network. Coupled
with the capability of provide a permanent-access, two-way, always-online Connection, 24
hours a day, the power grid emerges as a significant competitor in the last-mile connectivity.
iii) The power grid supports information-based services with strong growth potential. Presently,
the current speed of data transmission using power lines is in the order of 1 Mbps. But many
useful services are already feasible with data transmission in the kbps range. Broadband
services may be feasible in the near future when speeds of more than 10 Mbps are Achieved.
iv) The power grid is already in place thus enhancing cost effectiveness. To the energy sector,
this is a very important aspect. In order to achieve a comparable network as the power grid, it
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would generally require tremendous investment for other forms of local telecommunications
access. So the energy supply already has at its hands a very large telecommunication network
ready for exploitation.
Some disadvantages of the power line communication are
i) Power lines represent a particularly difficult communication environment. At frequencies of
interest to communication, the cable attenuation is usually very large, and thus, repeaters may
be required for this compensation. Since electronic devices are also connected to the power
lines, the issue of electromagnetic compatibility has to be addressed. Most importantly,
channel parameter, such as noise level, impedance and attenuation, fluctuates with time and
load.
ii) Power line communication technology is still in the development stage; it is young and still
evolving. The recent rapid advancement in microprocessor technology and the development
of complex modulation techniques have enabled research into high speed and high frequency
power line communication systems, taking into account that the power line is an onerous
environment.
iii) There is a lack of standardization and interoperability of power line communication relevant
products. The CENELEC (European Committee for Electro technical Standardization) EN
(European Norm) 50065-1 standard [2], for example, allows a frequency band that is very
narrow, and thus, restricts the capability to deploy modern voice or data systems. Although
presently there are power line communication relevant products, they have Difficulties to
communicate with each other, such as X10 and Echelon Lon Works products, since most of
them are sole-proprietary.
iv) The commercial incentives to exploit power line communication infrastructure have not been
clear until recently. The main aim of power line communication used to be reducing
operational costs of the energy supply sector such as automatic meter reading (AMR).

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CHAPTER 3
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEM
The proposed control system for the detection of illegal electricity usage is shown in
Fig.3.1. PLC signalling is only valid over the low voltage VAC power lines. The system
should be applied to every low-voltage distribution network. The system given in Fig.
Belongs only one distribution transformer network and should be repeated for every
distribution network. Although the proposed system can be used uniquely, it is better to use it
with automatic meter reading system. If the AMR system will be used in any network, the
host PLC unit and a PLC modem for every subscriber should be contained in this system. In
Fig., the host PLC unit and other PLC modems are named PLC1A, PLCNA and are used for
AMR. These units provide communication with each other and send the recorded data in
kilowatt-hour meters to the PLC unit. In order to detect illegal usage of electrical energy, a
PLC modem and an energy meter chip for every subscriber are added to an existing AMR
system. As given in Fig. 3.5, PLC1B, PLCNB and energy meter chips belong to the detector.
The detector PLC s and energy meters must be placed at the connection point between
distribution main lines and subscribers line. Since this connection point is usually in the air
or at underground, it is not suitable for anyone to access, such that its control is easy. The
main procedure of the proposed system can be summarized as follows.PLC signalling must
be in CENELEC standards. In Europe, CENELEC has formed the standard EN-50 065-1, in
which the frequency bands, signalling levels, and procedures are specified. 395 kHz is
restricted for use by electricity suppliers, and 95148.5 kHz is restricted to consumer use. The
recorded data in kilowatt-hour meters for every subscriber are sent to host PLC modem via
PLC modems, which is placed in subscribers locations. On the other hand, energy meter
chips are located at the connection points and read the energy in kilowatt-hours and also send
the data to host PLC unit. This proposed detector system has 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. This means
that there is an illegal usage in the network. After that, the subscriber address and error signal
are combined and sent to the central control unit. If it is requested, a contactor may be
included to the system at subscriber locations to turn off the energy automatically, as in the
case of illegal usage.
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Figure3: Schematic illustration of detection system of illegal electricity usage

The main elements of PLC modem are ST7537HS1 produced by SGS and 707VXT1002N transformer Produced by Toko Inc. The ADE7755 is an accurate electrical energy
measurement IC intended for use in single phase distribution systems, produced by Analog
Device. The main circuits of one detector system are carried out in the conditions of
laboratory.

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Fig 3.1: Illegal detector system of one subscriber

3.1. SIMULATION:
The system model and simulation of the detection system of illegal electricity usage is
shown in Fig. 4. It contains a host PLC modem, an energy meter chip and its PLC modem, an
electromechanical kilowatt-hour meter and its PLC modem, and an optical reflector sensor
system is loaded at the same phase of the power grid. The energy value at the
electromechanical kilowatt-hour meter is converted to digital data using by optical reflector
sensor. Disk speed of the kilowatt-hour meter is counted and obtained data is sent to PLC
modem as energy value of the kilowatt-hour meter. At the system model, an illegal load may
be connected to the power line before the kilowatt-hour meter via an S switch. While only a
legal load is 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. 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.

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Fig 3.2: System simulation and modelling of the detection system of illegal electricity usage for
electromechanical kilowatt-hour meters

The host PLC unit is generated when it received two different records from the same
subscriber. This is the detection of the illegal usage for interested users. In these tests, the
carrier frequency is selected at 132 kHz, which is permitted in the CENELEC frequency
band. In real applications the AMR systems may be designed in CENELEC bands. The data
rate between the host and other PLC modems is 2400 b/s.
Data signalling 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 and national power grid architecture. Fig.5 shows the detection system for an
electromechanical kilowatt-hour meter system. In the digital energy meter system, the
recorded energy may be received in the digital form directly using the port of the meter.
Therefore, there is no need for an optical reflector system in digital meters.
The results of the tests show that this system may be solve this problem economically
because of the budget of the proposed system is approximately 20-25 USD per a subscriber.
It is very economical and reliable solution when it is compared with economical lost caused
by illegal usage.
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CHAPTER 4
OVER VIEW OF THE PROPOSED DETECTOR SYSTEM
The proposed detector system is the equipment and procedure for controlling more
remote stations from a master control station. It includes PLC modems, energy meters,
control logics, and the system software. The PLC modems are host and target modems for
two-way communications to and from the host station and the remotely controlled targets.
The energy meters include metering chips and some circuit elements; the control and logic
units compare and generate the error signal in the Illegal usage.

Fig 4: Effects of distance of the source-receiver on the loss for various

The system software has two parts: assembler program for the micro controller and
the operating software for the management of the overall system. Operating software may be
downloaded from a PC and should be placed in the main center of the system.
An AMR system including an illegal detector performs the following functions.
1) Every user has two PLC modems; one is for AMR and the other is used to send the data from
second energy meter chip to host PLC modem.
2) An energy meter must be installed in the connection box between a home line and main
power lines.
3) The host PLC unit must be placed in the distribution transformer and the configuration of the
addressing format of PLC signalling must be designed carefully.

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4) Operating software must be designed for the information of every subscriber in every sub
power network: subscriber identification number, billing address, etc..
5) The system has two values of the energy consumption for every user, so if there is a
difference between them, an error signal is generated for the illegal user,
6) The proposed equipment is the only one distributed in the power network. So this system
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.

7) Host PLC modem and its controller must include two addresses per every user; one is AMR
and the other for energy meter. These two addresses must be selected as sequently.

Fig 4.1: Bit-error probability with frequency and load impedance for 1000-m line

Fig 4.2 The effects of line length (m) on the bit error probability

Results and the variations of the measurements are shown in Fig. The relations
between frequency, length, and bit-error probability are given in these figures. Research work
has been taking place in the CPRI, Bangalore for the remote metering and detection of power
theft and will soon be helpful to electricity boards in India.

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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
The proposed detector system to determine illegal electricity usage via power line
communications is examined in the laboratory conditions. Results proved that if AMR and
detector system are used together illegal usage of electricity might be detected. Once this
proposed detection systems are tried in real power lines, the distribution losses in India can be
reduced effectively.
A detector system to determine illegal electricity usage via power line
communications is designed and proposed. The proposed system is examined in laboratory
conditions. Obtained results from this study show that if the AMR and detector system are
used together, illegal usage of electricity may be detected. The proposed system has not been
tried in real power lines due to nonexistent AMR system in our country. In the near future,
combined AMR and detector systems will be tried in our country as explained above. One of
the main aims of this study is to start new discussions and propose solutions in this field,
because illegal usage is a serious problem in our country. And may also be in other parts of
the world.

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REFERENCES
[1] I. H. Cavdar, A Solution to Remote Detection of IEEE Transactions on power
delivery, Vol. 19, No. 4, October 2004.
[2] I. H. Cavdar, Performance analysis of FSK power line communications systems over the
time-varying channels: Measurements and modelling, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 19,
pp. 111117, Jan. 2004.
[3] Yoshinori Mizugai and Masahiro Oya World Trends in Power Line Communications
Mitsubishi Electric ADVANCE March 2005.
[4] Tom D Tamarkin Automatic Meter Reading, Public Power magazine Volume50,
Number5 September-October 1992.
[5] Online; www.wikipedia.org/powerlinecommunication
[6] Proceedings, ETP06, Dept of EEE, S.R.K.R.E.C.

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