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The European Railcast – A Single European Railway Area: why and how EU-Rail contributes?
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Improving Rail’s Energy Supply and Consumption
Transform energy from public power supply networks
Distribute this energy along the track to the rail vehicles
The Challenge
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.
How we do this?
A good place to start is to measure and manage energy use. Leaning into innovation, Shift2Rail delivered 2 Technology Demonstrators that do exactly that:
Smart Power Supply
A smart railway power grid in an interconnected and communicated system.
Smart Metering
Providing real-time information to optimise energy consumption.
Smart power supply solutions
Smart Control of Rail Power Supply
Demonstrator for 50 Hz rail power supply
Demonstrator unified DC railway electrification system
What it does
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.
Who benefits
Infrastructure managers
Suppliers
Infrastructure managers
Suppliers
Infrastructure managers
Suppliers
The benefits of smart power supply
Smart power supply solutions will benefit future and existing electrification schemes
- Enhanced control and protection capabilities for railway power systems
- Boost performance and capacity of existing lines
- Mitigate need for extravagant investment costs
Did You Know?
Conventional 25 kV 50 Hz substations aren’t operating to their full potential. Smart control networks can improve asset reliability and increase functionality.
Key Finding
DC electrification schemes can be improved using power electronic converters and 9kV DC coupled with renewable energy sources.
Fast Fact
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.
Smart metering solutions
Energy metering services
A communication system to interconnect many devices
Using data to improve the energy efficiency of railway infrastructure
What it does
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.
Who benefits
Infrastructure managers
Railway operators
Infrastructure managers
Railway operators
Infrastructure managers
Railway operators
The benefits of smart metering
- Realise rail’s energy efficiency potential
- Optimise system performance
- Reduce maintenance effort and costs
- Increase rail’s economic and environmental performance
Did You Know?
Smart metering can:
Decrease maintenance cost and efforts by 5 – 15%
Reduce fault-related costs by up to 30%
Key Finding
User applications of smart metering systems allow for a systematic exploitation of a railway system’s efficiency and performance potential.
Fast Fact
Smart metering systems optimise infrastructure operations, as well as improve actual performance.
Enhancing energy management
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.