Aspects of Catenary Free Operation of DC Traction

Systems
Hussain al-Ezee Sarath B Tennakoon Ian Taylor Daniel Scheidecker
Staffordshire University, UK Staffordshire University, UK Staffordshire University, UK NTL Company, France
h.al-ezee@staffs.ac.uk S.B.Tennakoon@staffs.ac.uk I.Taylor@staffs.ac.uk daniel.scheidecker@translohr.com

Abstract- Removal of overhead electrical installations
(catenaries) is a major consideration of light railway industries.
This is driven by continuing focus on environmental concerns and
reduction of energy consumption. For catenary free operation of
rapid transit trains, on-board energy storage has a significant role
to provide the required power and recover the regenerated
energy from braking. An efficient train control and optimised
energy management can improve the energy efficiency of rapid
transit system. The main aspects of catenary free operation of DC
traction systems are described in this paper.
Index Terms-- Energy Storage, Light Railway Vehicle,
Catenary Free Operation, Energy Management Control System
I. INTRODUCTION
Urban public transport systems are growing due to the
extension of existing systems, the replacement of outdated
systems and the installation of new systems. Modern cities
require zero emission, silent and efficient transport solutions
which have low or no visual impact on the environment.
Structures such as catenaries, overhead lines and supporting
structures are considered to be visual pollution. Zero emission
requires electrically driven vehicles as opposed to fossil fuel
based vehicles. Therefore out of the new orders for city
transport systems placed by city planners some are for
replacing fossil fuel driven vehicles by complete electrical
transport systems. Current electrical systems use an overhead
catenary which is considered to be an eyesore by the general
public and the city planners to power the trams. Another factor
is the worldwide interest in developing energy efficient
systems which reduce CO2 emissions. Therefore it is clear that
there is a need for an alternative electrical supply system which
is cost effective, silent, energy efficient, and visually pleasing
for propelling trams.
II. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
In electrified rapid transit systems, traction vehicles are
powered by electricity which is supplied from a local
distribution network through a traction power supply system.
Most of these rapid transit systems are powered by an overhead
catenary system, which implies some negative consequences
[1]:
 City centres are full of overhead cables which is
considered to be an eyesore by the general public and the
city planners to power the trams.
 Peak power delivery imply voltage variations and
increases of power losses.
 Limited energy savings due to limited braking energy
recovery
Operating trams without a catenary can provide a number
of advantages as set out below:
 Reduction in the level of visual pollution.
 Traction power consumption pattern will be reduced as a
result of being able to store all available power from
regenerative braking.
 Braking energy will be regenerated and stored on-board
energy storage
Visual pollution due to structures such as catenary lines and
their associated equipment is often an issue for city planners,
as they do much interfere with the visual aesthetics of a place.
Due to this, there may be very significant opposition to
schemes on the basis of the impact on architectural or cultural
landmarks. Hence the demand for catenary free tram solutions
while maintaining the same performance and availability has
increased.
III. DC SYSTEMS
DC systems in common use are shown in Table I [2]:
TABLE I
DC TRACTION SYSTEMS
600-1000 V Used for light rail vehicles. The conductor can be arranged
as an overhead for street running, otherwise a third rail at
the side, or exceptionally London Underground, third and
fourth rail.
1500 V Overhead. Used for heavy metros.
3000 V Overhead. Generally outmoded by 25 kV AC
The electric traction power is normally supplied by trackside
substations, typically with ratings in the range 1-10 MW [3].
This power is derived from AC utility supply at 11 or 33 kV
for metros and light rail [2]. The trackside substations placed
regularly in the range shown in Table II depending on the
traffic density, supply voltage, and conductor arrangements
[4].
TABLE II
DISTANCE BETWEEN DC SUBSTATIONS
DC supply voltage Most economic distance
600 V 2-3 km
750 V 3 km
1500 V 2-8 km
3000 V 7.5 -12.5 km
AC incoming voltage, usually at distribution voltage level,
is transformed and rectified, and connected to the catenary and
track at specific points through the following arrangements:
 overhead catenary (Manchester Metro link)
 third rail system (Dockland’s light rail)
 four rail system (London Underground)

978-1-4673-9682-0/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

 In the overhead catenary system, power is supplied to the
train through an exposed overhead conductor. A sliding
contact power collector on the train (pantograph) is used to
connect the moving train to the overhead supply line. The
contact wire is arranged as a series of tension lengths of 1.5 km
long [5]. Most of urban tramway systems are powered by an
overhead catenary system of 750 V DC and 1.5 kV DC for
inter-urban and regional systems. In the overhead catenary
system, the supply voltage can be increased so copper losses
are reduced thus; leading to improved efficiency.
The challenge in the overhead contact system is dealing with
the relatively high line currents which significantly imply a
voltage drop along the line [5]. DC has a serious problem in
this respect, as it is very difficult to break fault currents in a
high voltage DC circuit. Due to this, a second contact wire may
be used, or a parallel feeder cable laid to assist in minimising
the loop resistance. Otherwise, DC power supply rails can be
arranged by using a third rail at the side or, exceptionally third
and fourth rail (London underground).
In third rail contact system, the supply voltage is 600/750 V on
the third rail. In this arrangement the train wheels and running
rails constitute the current return path which is fully shrouded
by guard boarding except where the collector shoes makes
contact.
In the four rail system (London Underground), the supply
voltage is 630 V. The positive conductor is at a potential of
+400 V and the negative or fourth rail at -230 V, which carries
the return current to minimise stray traction leakage current.
Without the fourth rail theses leakage currents would cause
corrosion of buried water and gas pipes by electrolytic action.
The centre earth system minimises the voltage of system
voltage to earth, thereby reducing the risk of injury by electric
shock [4].
IV. ENERGY STORAGE
Various energy storage solutions are explained in this
section, some of which has allowed partial catenary free
operation.
A. On-board Energy storage
Batteries: Contenders are Ni-MH and Li-ion. Overhead line
is required for most of the line. Batteries have good energy
density; however, they have low power density, making them
unsuitable for rapid charging and discharging and hence the
recovery of braking energy is limited. This solution requires a
dedicated DC-DC converter, and could run out of energy when
long unscheduled stops occur.
Super capacitors: As super capacitors have high power
density quick charging and discharging (typically 20-30
seconds) is practical and hence provide a means for recovering
braking energy. Energy saving is possible depending on the
amount of installed super capacitors and mission profile.
However only sections of less than 500m are possible, and
hence the overhead line is required for most of the line,
requires a dedicated DC-DC converter, and could run out of
energy when long unscheduled stops occur.
Fuel Cells: The solution is not mature and not safe enough
for railway applications. But, the network to provide hydrogen
is still to develop and the costs are still very high compared to
other solutions.
Flywheels: This solution allows quick charging time.
However their cost is high, these are moving parts, safety and
reliability need to be improved and the technology is
technically not yet ready for commercial operation. For the
system to remain safe, the operation of the cooling system
needs permanent, efficient, and reliable monitoring.
B. Way Side Power Delivery Technologies.
Inductive Power transfer: Studies were made and prototypes
were investigated in the early nineties in the US for application
to city busses. Bombardier focused on this technology which
led to the Primove product [6]. The advantages of this
technology are; partial operation without an overhead line,
possibility of combining with on board energy storage and
extension to vehicles other than trams, high power transfer up
to 500kW and no lack of energy due to unscheduled stops.
However such systems are very expensive, require
energisation of only the sections under the vehicle and require
complex EMI shielding.
Opportunity charging: This technique is based on fast
energy transfer. Examples are Siemens Sitras/CAF FreeDrive
[6]. This allows complete or partial operation without overhead
lines and it is also possible to recover the braking energy.
However the disadvantages are the oversizing of energy
storage when the distances between substations are long,
requiring high capacity and hence large and expensive
converters and substations due to need for high energy transfer
in a short time and the need for a mobile mechanical device for
connecting the vehicle to the source of energy supply. There is
also the danger of running out of energy when long
unscheduled stops happen.
Wipost [7]: This solution replaces the Translohr overhead
electrical installations (catenaries), making it possible to
eliminate the usual aerial pollution whilst retaining access to
the facades of buildings. The principle of Wipost is to function
as a “reverse catenary”: current injection points are located
along the Translohr route so that they come in contact with the
conductor strip installed on the roof of the tramway as it passes.
In this way street lighting and the fixed equipment of the
Wipost system can be combined. The power supply arms, 3.3
m from the ground, are out of reach of users. The posts are
located along the trackway, in and on the approaches to
stations and in the areas where the tram accelerates. On the rest
of the route, the tram travels using the on-board energy storage.
Embedded Systems: The principle of embedding the supply
rail in the road is more than 100 years old with the first
application in Cleveland in 1884 and in the early 1900s a bus
developed by Ansaldo underwent tests for 3 years. ALSTOM
and SPIE ENTERTRANS worked on similar systems that led
to the Alstom APS System [6]. In the period 1995 to 2003 Lohr
Industrie filed a number of patents [8][9] on a system also
based on this principle but was not pursued further as the costs
are prohibitively high.
 V. IMPLEMENTATION OF ENERGY STORAGE
A conventional rapid transit system transforms electrical
energy from the traction power supply system into mechanical
energy. The conversion can be divided into several stages as
shown in Fig. 1; AC voltage (VAC ) is rectified within the track
side substation to produce a DC voltage (VDC ). The DC voltage
is fed to the onboard traction power inverter which drives the
motors coupled to the wheels.
DC Conductor Rail System
DC traction
AC power supply VAC VDC
substation Power Inverter
Power Supply System
Fig. 1. Electrical drive configuration of a traction vehicle
The train starts from standstill, accelerates, cruises (a short
period of motoring), brakes and stops. Electrical power
supplied to the train provides the tractive effort to accelerate
the train and the power required by auxiliary loads [10][11].
The electrical power required by the train is obtained on the
basis of the knowledge of AC traction motor and the auxiliary
power consumption.
During acceleration, which requires high line currents, the
tractive effort is set constant and then decreases keeping
constant the mechanical power [12][13].
When the train decelerates to a stop, the stored kinetic
energy has to be transferred to somewhere else. Most of this
energy is dissipated as heat through braking resistors (dynamic
braking) wasting energy[14]. However, this energy can be
recovered through regenerative braking.
During regeneration, in mainline AC systems, energy can be
regenerated back to the local distribution network. The train
creates an AC voltage which leads the supply voltage, and
current will then be returned into the supply [15]. In DC
systems, regeneration of energy back to local distribution
network is not possible as the DC traction substations based on
thyristor rectifiers are not bi-directional in power flow.
However, when the distance between traction vehicles is
significant, the recovery of braking energy is possible only if,
at the same time, a train is accelerating and another is braking
[4]. In this case, the substations between the traction vehicles
are effectively turned off, and the traction supply network
behaviour is equivalent to that of one traction vehicle
transmitting to the next along conductor [16]. As a result the
recovery of train kinetic energy during braking is subject to
unpredictable traffic conditions [17].
Many studies considered the use of on-board energy storage
units for the recovery of braking energy to be used for peak
power levelling in conventional rapid transit vehicle
[14][18][19]. The on-board storage simplifies significantly the
energy management, because its control is independent of
traffic conditions [12]. Regenerative braking energy is stored
during braking and reused in the next acceleration. Additional
energy required for acceleration can be provided by the energy
storage in order to reduce the energy taken from the supply
[20][21]. This permits the limitation of contact line voltage
drop during acceleration, since the peak power is supplied by
the energy storage unit [22].
A prototype of a bogie in Mannheim with only 1kWh energy
storage covered successfully a 500m distance without power
supply from the catenary [23]. The maximum speed was about
26 km/h. However, the prototype with on-board energy storage
has been used for discontinuous electrification to evacuate the
track (especially tunnels) after breakdown of the catenary
power supply [23].
Mechanical
As the demand for a rapid transit vehicle with catenary free
AC Motor
Tranmission operation has increased, the use of on-board energy storage
based on super capacitors, batteries and flywheels is an
Vehicle Kinetic
Energy effective solution to propel the vehicle in sections where no
external power supply is provided for reasons of visual impact
and customer demand [24][25][26][27][28].
One approach is to realise a catenary free power supply
system for rapid transit vehicle by adapting the street light
posts as fixed installations to supply the electrical energy
needed for the traction vehicle supplemented by on-board
energy storage units as an alternative for overhead line power
supply system[7]. Radical changes in the infrastructure of the
electrified railway line can be prevented by removing the
catenary wire. This can produce a significant saving in the
overall cost of the railway and maintenance and visual impact
is improved [29][30].
For catenary free operation, recharging of the energy storage
can be done by continuous current pick up through the street
light posts (for example the Wipost) and then energy storage
units to allow the traction vehicle to proceed to the next pick
up. This demand can be fulfilled by the appropriate sizing and
optimal energy saving management [31].
Vital power electronic equipment necessary for the
realisation of a DC traction system capable of catenary free
operation is a “Bi-directional DC-DC converter” (Chopper) for
interfacing the energy storage equipment drive system. The
converter and the energy storage units are on-board the traction
vehicle so that the vehicle can be propelled from the energy
stored when the external power supply is not available
[32][33].
The DC to DC converter needs to be controlled in order to
manage the energy flow between the DC bus and energy
storage unit. In addition to that, The DC to DC converter needs
to be controlled in real time in order to propel the traction
vehicle in the most energy efficient manner dependent upon
the level of energy stored, the load profile and the auxiliary
energy requirements [34].
Fig. 2 shows the schematic which allows energy storage to
be implemented on-board an electric DC traction vehicle. The
braking resistor is installed in case the energy storage unit is
unable to absorb braking energy. The energy flow to and from
the energy storage unit is governed by controlling the DC-DC
converter. Auxiliary loads are additional loads which only
consume power, these include HVAC, lightings, ventilation
systems, doors, control and monitoring systems.
 DC Supply
DC Bus
Bi-directional Traction
DC-DC Power
Converter Inverter
Energy
Storage M Auxiliary
Load
Unit
AC Traction
Motor
Fig. 2. On-board implementation of energy storage system
VI. ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM
In catenary free operation, energy storage on-board the train
supply power to drive the train between stations. The driving
mode include acceleration, coasting/driving, and braking.
During the stopping time at the stations, the energy storage on-
board of the train is recharged through an overhead power
supply system for a certain time. Power through the overhead
supply will be used to operate the auxiliary loads during
stoppings. Energy needs to be managed efficiently during
operation through an efficient energy management control
system (EMCS). The flow of energy between energy storage
and the DC link is controlled through the EMCS. The main
target of the control strategy is to:
 Monitor the energy storage status, e.g. state of
charge/discharge.
 Optimise the energy usage depending on the driving
conditions, e.g. accelerating, motoring on a level track,
climbing/descending a gradient, and braking.
 Manage the energy consumption of auxiliary loads, e.g.
HVAC control, opening/closing doors, lighting controls.
 Reduce the peak power reduction to avoid irregular power
breakdown of train.
 Assist the driver to remain as close as possible to the
optimum mission profile by displaying the target speed
according to the identified vehicle position, providing
another visual or "sensitive" information allowing him to
have an "eco driving style"
VII. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the aspects of catenary free operation of a DC
traction systems is reviewed. New power electronic converters
need to be designed and added to enable energy storage and
recovery of braking energy. Energy storage devices have
reached a level of development that is necessary for light
railway transport applications. The energy storage needs to be
designed to allow the vehicle to propel by using on-board
stored energy when there are no wayside supplies to provide
power. An efficient control system for energy management is
needed to manage the energy consumption during catenary free
operation.
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