American Electric Power will use Amperion's Broadband Power Line Carrier (B-PLC) technology as a replacement strategy for aging pilot wire technology in 69-kV line protection and control applications. The first commercial deployment began in the summer with the replacement of pilot wire systems with B-PLC and the upgrade of electro-mechanical relays with digital solid-state relays.

Modernizing the pilot wire protection schemes with B-PLC will improve the reliability and accuracy of line protection and reduce maintenance costs associated with pilot wire. Past pilot wire replacement often required a fiber path between stations, which had a high installation cost and often required line outages to install. The use of fiber was required to support the latest digital protection, control and monitoring schemes, such as line current differential protection and phasor measurements. Testing has shown that the new Amperion technology can support these protection schemes, so costly fiber is not required. Initial estimates indicate the capital cost of B-PLC could be as low as one-tenth the cost of fiber-optic communications. Another advantage of B-PLC compared to fiber is its simple and fast installation process, accelerating the implementation of substation retrofit projects.

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