Smart grid communication over DC powerline: Evaluation of powerline communication OFDM PAPR for new types of destabilizing electrical loads

In this paper, the channel peak-to-average-power-ratio (PAPR) of powerline communication (PLC) for smart grid and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) communication is evaluated in view of new types of destabilizing, non-stable, nonlinear electrical loads recently reported in literature. These types of loads may occur due to faults or varying bandwidth of controllers on the powerline and the presence of such loads always leads to spurious group delay, increasing channel distortion, noise and very high PAPR on the PLC channel. This work is an attempt towards better understanding of the impact of such load types on powerline communication over a direct current (DC) powerline channel. The effect of having such loads on powerline channel implementing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) scheme is also examined with the aid of Matlab. It is discovered that while PLC amplifiers normally introduce high PAPR, having first order lag loads will exacerbate this problem. The result of this study will be useful for more effective modulation, coding and signal processing for PLC. It will also be useful to other researchers working on designing more effective transmission channel's group delay equalizers, channel digital to analogue converters (DACs) and to standard bodies such as the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).