The January 2025 edition of the Europe’s Rail newsletter is out! We are happy to unveil our completely new design,...

Increasing demand for rail-based journeys = an increase in demand for power availability. Combine this with a general shift to making railways even more sustainable, and it is easy to see why. Rail must address its energy supply and consumption challenge.
A good place to start is to measure and manage energy use. Leaning into innovation, Shift2Rail delivered 2 Technology Demonstrators that do exactly that:
A smart railway power grid in an interconnected and communicated system.
Providing real-time information to optimise energy consumption.
Digital control elements in rail power supply by paralleling an existing solution with a special improved switchgear station.
Integrating Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) equipment into rail power supply networks.
New 9 kV DC railway power supply using converter solutions.
Smart power supply solutions will benefit future and existing electrification schemes
Conventional 25 kV 50 Hz substations aren’t operating to their full potential. Smart control networks can improve asset reliability and increase functionality.
DC electrification schemes can be improved using power electronic converters and 9kV DC coupled with renewable energy sources.
Improvements to substations can have a significant impact on the power supplied to both AC and DC lines and can reduce both nominal power requirements and energy losses.
When connected to multiple sensors via a heterogeneous telecommunications platform to an open data management (ODM) platform, these services can facilitate data collection, analysis and subsequent action.
Located either on-board a vehicle or trackside, with an ODM platform, this system can monitor and analyse collected data.
Forecast energy demand on an infrastructure, estimate a railway system’s energy consumption, and predict abnormal patterns in a railway traction system.
Smart metering can:
Decrease maintenance cost and efforts by 5 – 15%
Reduce fault-related costs by up to 30%
User applications of smart metering systems allow for a systematic exploitation of a railway system’s efficiency and performance potential.
Smart metering systems optimise infrastructure operations, as well as improve actual performance.
Not only do smart power supply solutions improve control and protection functionality for railway power supply systems, they also transmit energy data to smart metering platforms. This data then feeds user-centric applications, which in turn directly enhance energy management. Add this up and what you have is a powerful tool to better understand and improve railway power supply and energy consumption.