Hybrid communication module - motivations, requirements, challenges and implementations

Smart Grid (SG) is becoming a reality in Brazil in many projects covering different areas such as smart metering, demand-side management and distributed generation. It is known that the communications infrastructure is an essential part for a successful implementation of SG architecture and the choice of a communication system is very particular due to several weaknesses in communication technologies. In order to reduce such weaknesses, it was developed a reference design for a hybrid communication module based on the universally adopted IP protocol with two communication channels: Radio Frequency (RF) and Power Line Communication (PLC). It was used IEEE P1901.2 and IEEE 802.15.4g protocols in order to provide interoperability, reliability and resilience for the network. This article aims to present the motivations, the communication module developed and the test results obtained in the validation stage in laboratory and on site. In addition, the project is exploiting regulations and restraining requirements.