Development of Monitoring and Control System of Utility-Pipe Conduit (Power Tunnel) using PLC

The existing monitoring and control systems of utility-pipe conduit (power tunnel, cable tunnel etc) have established communication lines using optical fiber, leaky coaxial cable (LCX), and several kinds of control cable. Due to the properties of the used media, the cost of equipment is considerably high and the maintenance of the system is difficult. Also, the term of carrying out is long so that the extension of the system is in difficulty. Now it is desirable to adopt Power Line Communication (hereinafter, PLC) technology in the monitoring and control systems and use the existing low-voltage power-line for lamplight as communication line. This will lead the reduction of the construction cost and the easy maintenance of the system. In this paper, we research the characteristics of PLC in conduit, design and manufacture the field test system, and analyze the performance of the system by field test. Then, we introduce the reliable monitoring and control system of utility-pipe conduit using PLC.