Page 16 - Innovation in energy management: contribution of railways to sustainable mobility

R.1. Efficient design of the railway electrical network

Investment: Nature: Improvement:

Related to:

R.18
The areas of work in this field continue to be diverse and focus on the efficient design of
electrical infrastructure with an emphasis on good practices and not on the acquisition of
specific technology. Among others, these are:

 Use of adequate reinforcement sections to enable an efficient distribution of
traction current.

 Project parallel installations between Transmission Lines.

 Analysis of the reactive energy of the facilities in the project.

 Adoption of efficient technical teams.

 Position of Neutral Zones for electrical phase separation in flat areas (in AC
systems).

 Efficient operation of the railway Electrical grid (R.18), design of a network
topology that allows optimum use of regenerated energy based on different
exploitation scenarios (in DC systems).

 Use of the highest supply voltages, through receivers connected to the transport
network and internal Medium Voltage networks, guaranteeing a better quality of
supply, a better electricity price and a greater capacity to take advantage of all the
energy regenerated by the recuperators of traction in DC systems.

In principle, these areas of work should not be complex for the different users. On the
contrary, it is worth highlighting two lines of action that, as they are specific to the
corresponding engineering projects, would have a significant impact on the functionality
and characteristics of the network. Namely, the increase in the nominal electrical voltage
of the Transmission Line and the evolution to single-phase alternating current traction
systems instead of direct current (referring to the RFIG). In fact, the latter has already
being implemented in recent years, not only in newly built infrastructures, but also in the
existing infrastructures that are electrified. The advantages of using this current are
greater than its main disadvantage (generating disturbances on the external network and
on nearby railway facilities).

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Position paper: Innovation in energy management: contribution of railways to sustainable mobility
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