Power line communication and customer equipment

In Sweden, the change from manual meter reading at irregular intervals, to automatic remote meter reading at predefined instants was completed in July 2009. This change is ongoing or largely completed in a number of other European countries as well. Several methods for communication between the meter and the network operator are in use. In Sweden power-line communication is used for communication with about half of the meters. The frequency range between 9 and 95 kHz contains, in addition to communication signals, conducted emission from end-user equipment connected to the power grid. Electronic components in end-user equipment can also in other ways affect the characteristic of the power lines as a communication media.The aim of this thesis is to give an overview of how power line communication in the frequency range 9 to 95 kHz can interact with modern energy saving end-user equipment. Potential problems concerning this interaction have been identified.Results presented in this thesis are based on a large number of measurements of voltage and current distortions due to connected loads and due to power line communication.A total of five different ways of interaction between power-line communication and end-user equipment are identified in this thesis. As a spin-off from this work, also new aspects of the interaction between end-user equipment have been identified