Power Line Communication Integration in DC Microgrid Systems

Direct‐current microgrids are emerging as a resilient, efficient infrastructure for integrating renewable energy sources, energy storage and sensitive loads. Embedding communication within the existing power lines of a DC microgrid offers a compelling pathway to reduce system complexity, enhance real‐time monitoring and enable coordinated control without additional wiring or spectrum allocation. By modulating information onto the electrical bus—often by varying voltage ripple, switching frequency or duty cycle—controllers and energy management systems can exchange data on state-of-charge, load demands and fault conditions. This co-existence of power transfer and digital messaging is commonly termed “talkative power.”

Key technical advances address crosstalk between power conversion and data signals, the impact of network topology on signal attenuation, and the development of robust modulation schemes that preserve power-conversion efficiency. Strategies range from low-frequency sinusoidal injections that carry high-level commands to sophisticated double‐modulation schemes combining frequency‐hopping and phase‐shift keying. Successful integration promises cost-effective deployment of microgrids in remote communities, commercial facilities and industrial sites, while supporting self-healing protection and energy-sharing markets.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Researchers have recently characterised the intrinsic similarities between DC-DC converters and communication transmitters, exploiting shared principles of electromagnetic modulation. A double-modulation approach embeds data onto converter switching signals by superimposing a secondary modulation layer on top of the primary power-control waveform. This method enables simultaneous high-fidelity power delivery and bidirectional data exchange across the DC bus. To mitigate interference, a frequency-hopping differential phase-shift keying protocol has been devised, in which converter switching instants carry encoded digital symbols. Experimental implementations demonstrate minimal degradation in conversion efficiency and reliable data rates suitable for hierarchical microgrid control.

Power Line Communication Integration in DC Microgrid Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in power line communication integration in dc microgrid systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

DC microgrid: A local energy network that distributes direct current among distributed energy resources and loads.

Power line communication (PLC): A method of transmitting data over existing electrical conductors by modulating parameters of the power signal.

Talkative power: The integrated concept of simultaneous power delivery and information transmission using power-electronic converters.

Double modulation: A scheme in which two layers of modulation (e.g., primary power control plus secondary data encoding) coexist on the converter switching signal.

Frequency-hopping differential phase-shift keying (FH-DPSK): A robust modulation technique that combines rapid changes in carrier frequency with phase modulation to reduce crosstalk.

Pulse-width modulation (PWM): A control method that regulates average voltage by varying the duty cycle of a periodic switching waveform.

Forward error correction (FEC): A coding technique that adds redundancy to data to enable error detection and correction at the receiver without retransmission.

References

1. Nature of power electronics and integration of power conversion with communication for talkative power. Nature Communications (2020).
2. Channel Coding and Receiver Design for Simultaneous Wireline Information and Power Transfer. IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics (2021).
3. Power and signal dual modulation‐based bidirectional communication between intrinsically safe converters. IET Power Electronics (2023).
4. Low Frequency Injection as a Method of Low-Level DC Microgrid Communication. Energies (2020).