Field trial deployment for the evaluation of G3-PLC performance in the medium voltage grid

Analyzing the potential of G3-PLC in the MV part of the grid is of high interest. Indeed, in the context of using G3-PLC for smart metering applications in the low voltage (LV), it is important to evaluate the possibility to extend the communication range of the MV part by crossing the MV/LV transformers. In addition, G3-PLC is also a potential communication candidate to manage the MV network operations. This paper presents the experimental setup deployed in a medium voltage (MV) grid in Belgium in order to evaluate the performance of G3-PLC systems as well as to identify the main sources of degradations (noises, power consumption, distributed productions, etc.).