Energy Performance Analysis in An Electrical Subway Traction System

One of the main problems in electric power network in metropolitan train transportation occurs when a train accelerates and decelerates, which can produce over and under voltage of DC link power supply and an important amount of energy is transferred from and into the DC link. The above mentioned affects the AC rectifier substations power system, producing interruptions of the traffic trains. This paper proposes an analysis by modeling and simulation of a train in order to evaluate the behavior of the DC link voltage supply applied to six stations. The storage kinetic energy of the metropolitan rail trains during accelerations is normally burned in order to avoid DC link perturbation voltage. However this energy can be recovered and used to compensate the DC link voltage variations, which can help to save an important amount of energy and improve the overall performance of the system. So, in this paper is proposed a Voltage Compensation System (VCS) throughout an energy storage system. Finally, an evaluation of the saved energy and a better performance operation of the metropolitan railways can be demonstrated with the results obtained.