Have you been asking yourself if power line carriers (PLC) are the right choice for your application over fiber? How do you decide between the two? PLC has been a trusted technology for nearly 100 years and has proven performance and reliability time and time again. AMETEK Power Instruments has been building on our original PLC design and perfecting it for more than 30 of those years making us an expert on the key features that make PLC the best choice for your application.
- PLC uses the mechanically robust power conductor while OPGW fibers tend to be affected by storms causing physical damage
- It can be costly to add optical fibers to existing power lines and fibers are expensive to repair
- The large majority of PLC systems do not need repeaters
- Protection engineering has complete control of the PLC system
- PLC systems undergo continuous performance enhancements, including:
- Universal units like our UPLC-II can be set for any application with the same modern features as protective relays
- PLC transmitter/receiver designs continually improve and become more robust
- New devices, such as our Smart Gap, have been released to improve overall system performance
If you’d like to discuss the benefits of integrating power line carriers into your application over fiber, contact our experts to learn more!