Development of “digital substation” technology for power supply of railways

Abstract

The paper considers the application of the “Digital Railway” project at the traction substation. The “Digital Railway” project should become a centralized system uniting the programs for the control of railway elements. In the traction power supply system, the application of digital technologies is often understood as the application of data transfer protocols of the International Energy Commission “IEC 61850”. The substations that switched to this information protocol are usually called “digital”. An attempt to introduce the “digital substation” technology only by completing a set of corresponding equipment can give a negative result of its application. The efficiency achieved through the technical upgrading of equipment (reduction of losses for own needs, reduction of electromagnetic influence, reduction of analog signal input channels, reduction in the number of cable products used, and improvement of the measurement accuracy class) may not be sufficient to pay for the project. The qualitative integration of all involved services in a single information process of monitoring and controlling the digital substation will increase the efficiency of its application. As a positive experience when considering the use of digital technologies in traction power supply systems, one can cite the Automated system for monitoring the railway transport infrastructure developed and implemented by the staff of the Far Eastern State Transport University at a number of traction substations of the Far Eastern operating domain and at the 2ES5K “Ermak” electric locomotive. In addition, this system already has a support of IEC 61850 protocols.