Power line communication (PLC) is the use of power lines for the purpose of electronic data transmission. The presence of additive noise, namely, background noise and impulsive noise, significantly affects the performance of a PLC system. While the background noise is modeled by Nakagami- m distribution, the impulsive noise is modeled using Middleton class A distribution. In this letter, we study the performance of a PLC system under the combined effect of Nakagami- m background noise and Middleton class A impulsive noise assuming binary phase shift keying signaling. The probability density function of decision variable under the influence of additive noise (sum of background noise and impulsive noise) is derived. We also derive an analytical expression for the average bit error rate of the considered PLC system. The analytical expressions are validated by close matching to the simulation results. The analysis presented in this letter closely predicts the behavior of the PLC system under the combined effect of background and impulsive noises. © 2015 IEEE.