Abstract
Abstract:
The mercury vapor lamp is the oldest high intensity
discharge technology lamp that uses an electric arc, and comes in
different shapes and designs. It creates a very bright light by
using an arc through vaporized mercury in a high pressure tube.
This lamp can cause unwanted interference to the smart-grid
network or power line communications channel when connected
to the channel’s wiring system. In this paper we investigate the
negative effects that the mercury vapor lamps with electric
ballast have on the smart-grid PLC channel. This can have a
strong and negative effect when using the smart-grid PLC
network to control the automatic switching of lamps in public
places. The narrowband and broadband channels are
investigated where the interference level from mercury vapor
lamps is significantly below the allowed maximum PLC signal
levels on the band: (3 kHz – 150 kHz), and competes with
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) levels on the 150 kHz – 30
MHz band. The mercury vapor lamp uses an electric ballast to
connect to the powerline system. This connection is explained in
detail.