In 2008, the Federative Republic of Brazil in South America marked the centenary of Japanese immigration. While Brazil experiences rapid economic growth as one of the BRICs countries, regional disparities have been widening in two areas; economical standards and living conditions. To reduce such disparities, the Brazilian government is aiming to build an infrastructure for the Internet environment. HD-PLC drew attention as the key in establishing networks with ease.

To alleviate the paucity of infrastructure, which in part is to blame for the regional disparities in Brazil, the Brazilian government sees improving the electrical power supply to households as a big issue. The government has set a specific goal to raise the distribution rate of electrical power supply, which is now around 70% to 80%, to 100% by the end of 2008.

To realize this, however, huge investments are necessary to build more power generating facilities, a big burden for the power companies. On the other hand, power companies are plagued by power theft. Some users are using power without hooking up the meters, or uses tampered meters. Therefore, the government is planning to reinforce the foundation of the management for the power companies by putting anti-theft systems in place, before adding momentum to the supply rate of electric power to households. It is HD-PLC that will play an important role in setting up the anti-theft systems.

Power Usage Notified via HD-PLC

Power meters with HD-PLC modules will be installed near the top of the power polls. Previously, it was enough to install power meters in high places, not in low places such as the house wall, to prevent users from using power illegally by connecting cables, or by using tampered meters. However, by doing so, the homeowners themselves cannot check how much electricity was used.

Therefore, HD-PLC technology was chosen. Meters installed in high places will send data of the used amount to each household through power lines. Homeowners can then check the amount used on the displays installed in each house. This means that the measurement function and the display function of the meters will be separated.

• Power theft is prevented by installing HD-PLC-mounted power meters on a high position on power polls, while the amount of power used in each household can still be checked

Each power meter is connected to an optical fiber network, and information of the amount used by each household is sent to the power companies. If the power companies find that a payment is delinquent, they can remotely stop the power supply by controlling the meters through the optical fiber network. In this way, HD-PLC and optical fiber networks enable power companies to prevent power theft, and to grasp the actual amount of power consumed by district or by each household in real time, and also to control the amount of power supply. The waste of power can also be reduced, another big advantage.

Furthermore, wide spread use of the power meters with HD-PLC modules is expected to reduce regional disparities in information, or the ‘digital divide’.