A SOLUTION TO REMOTE DETECTION

OF ILLEGAL ELECTRICITY USAGE VIA

POWER LINE COMMUNICATION
SEMINAR REPORT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the award of B.Tech Degree in

Electrical & Electronics Engineering

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
 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
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 POWE 13

3. DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEM 15

3.1 SIMULATION 17

4. OVER VIEW OF THE PROPOSED DETECTOR SYSTEM 19

5. CONCLUSION 21

REFERENCES 21
 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.
 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.
 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 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 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 connectdisconnect 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 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 customer’s 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 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
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 carrier
techniques may be used successfully and cost effectively for short distances; i.e., from a
customer’s 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 90Ω to 100Ω. 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
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

(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.
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.
 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 lastmile
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
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).

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 subscriber’s 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. 3–95 kHz is restricted for use by electricity suppliers, and 95–148.5
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 subscriber’s
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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
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.

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.

REFERENCES
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delivery, Vol. 19, No. 4, October 2004.
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111–117, 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, ETP’06, Dept of EEE, S.R.K.R.E.C.