Dear Colleagues,

Power line communication (PLC) is a technology that can intelligently and efficiently exploit existing power distribution networks. PLC has been evolving, absorbing innovations from other telecommunication and energy technology developments, and today it plays a fundamental role, providing reliable and affordable connectivity. From narrowband to broadband, and from grid-related applications to entertainment services, PLC has a great importance for a relevant number of stakeholders across the industry.

PLC offers several advantages over other technologies, being both a complement and a competitor to some of them. Among the evident advantages, there is the need for no new wiring, coverage where wireless communications cannot be effectively deployed, readiness to be integrated in grid connected devices, etc.

In the era of IoT, 5G communications, and the electrification of systems, PLC is again pushed to evolve to adapt to the new needs, so that it continues to be a reference technology in relevant application domains and open new potential markets. For this PLC evolution, it is especially important to consider the advent of new requirements, the adaptation to already-known constraints, and the capability to form hybrid architectures when combined with other technologies.

Within this context, this Special Issue aims at collecting original paper contributions related to the understanding of how PLC is adapting to the new landscape, the identification of the challenges, and the description of both up-to-date developed solutions and new ones that can stem from longer-term research efforts.

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Analysis of new PLC challenges;

Advances in PLC technologies (PHY, MAC and upper networking layers);

Hybrid architectures with PLC networks (radio, visible light, etc.);

Software defined PLC networks and virtualization;

PLC for smart grids, smart metering, and grid control;

PLC applications in non-grid-related environments (in-vehicle, in-home, industrial, IoT, etc.);

PLC experimental and deployment results.

Dr. Alberto Sendin
Dr. Andrea M. Tonello
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• power line communications
• smart grid communications
• smart metering
• home networks
• in-vehicle networks
• industrial networks
• PHY algorithms
• MAC protocols