Recent energy saving technologies on railway traction systems

Abstract

Energy saving technologies in the railway vehicle traction field can be mainly categorized into two domains: reducing loss and increasing the regenerative energy. Energy saving technologies for the traction equipment by the use of power converters with less loss and high-efficiency permanent magnet synchronous motors are introduced. The regenerative brake related technologies are also presented as another measure to save the energy, including the improvement of the regenerative brake control and application of energy storage devices. It is concluded that the benefit of the energy saving technology is not only the energy saving itself but also downsizing traction equipments and reducing the maintenance work in the electrical railway system. © 2010 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.