Integrated power/signal transmission for smart energy systems

Communication technologies, especially wired technology, have developed considerably in terms of signal stability and communication speed. Conventional renewable energy generation units in traditional energy systems require additional communication devices to manage the renewable power generation equipment, which can raise the size and expenditure of the system. Additionally, although power line communication (PLC) can simplify system wiring by eliminating the requirement for communication cables, additional signal coupling devices are still needed to combine energy and signals. Therefore, it is significant to investigate a suitable transmission approach for energy and signals in smart energy systems (SESs). The purpose of this study is to analyse the feasibility of the integrated power/signal transmission (IPST) approach and to develop IPST-based converters for SESs. Firstly, state-of-the-art communication strategies including wireless and wired methods are reviewed and their advantages and restrictions are summarised in comparison. The review work demonstrates that it is essential to systematically analyse the possible signal modulation approaches for power converter implementations and extend IPST technology in AC power system applications. On this basis, this research then investigates the similarity between signal transmission and power conversion from a system architecture perspective and analyses the mechanisms of pulse width modulation (PWM) based signal modulation methods. Next, the integrated transmission approaches are verified through the buck converter, boost converter and cascaded H-bridge converter, and the simulation results demonstrate that the designed strategies have decent noise immunity. Finally, all the proposed IPST methods in different SESs are validated. In summary, the main achievements of this study are the analysis of the feasibility of various converters for IPST transmission and the extension of IPST technology to different SES applications.