Influence of Infrastructure and Operating Conditions on Energy Performance of DC Transit Systems

Abstract

Energy efficiency is more and more important for modern electrified transportation systems, requiring an understanding of the various indexes of performance (regenerability, receptivity, and energy losses, thus including braking recovered energy and energy loss in catenary) and of the influence of the main system parameters (headway, line voltage, substation separation, etc.). By means of electromechanical simulation, the most relevant parameters and system conditions are identified as influencing the efficiency performance and optimization capability. Besides the assessment of such efficiency performance indexes, identifying their typical ranges of variation, one further outcome is the identification of characteristic system parameter combinations that lead to extreme variations in the system energy efficiency itself. Such peculiar variations are caused by occasionally synchronized patterns of trains along the line and result in a significant local increase or decrease in efficiency. Efficiency drop scenarios in particular should be taken into consideration for worst-case analysis and to devise effective mitigations. To this aim, the effect of differently distributed passenger stations is considered.