MODERN ELECTRIC TRACTION

Unit 01 : Power Supply Arrangements

PREPARED BY-
PARNEET KAUR CHOWDHARY
LECTURER (GGSP)
What is Traction?
 The action of drawing or pulling something over a surface,
especially a road or track is called Traction.
 Driving forward of a vehicle is traction and the system
which employs this mechanism is called traction system.
 A system which causes the propulsion of vehicle in which
tractive or driving force is obtained from various devices
such as diesel engine drives, steam engine drives, electric
motors, etc. is called as traction system.
 It can also be defined as the railway vehicle that provides
the necessary traction power to move the train is referred
as the traction or locomotive. This traction power can be
diesel, steam or electric power.
Traction systems can be classified as follows

TRACTION
SYSTEMS

NON-ELECTRIC ELECTRIC
TRACTION TRACTION
SYSTEMS SYSTEMS
NON-ELECTRIC TRACTION SYSTEM-
 A traction system that doesn’t use electrical energy for the movement of
vehicle at any stage is referred as non-electric traction system.
 The steam engine drive is the best example of a non electric traction system
and it is the first locomotive system used before the invention of actual
electric traction systems.
 The steam locomotive system uses the superheated steam to
produce mechanical energy for the movement of vehicle.
 This may use coal or petroleum as fuel, liberates thermal energy to
produce the steam pressure and then it is converted into kinetic
energy so that mechanical movement of the vehicle is produced.
The disadvantages of steam locomotive systems , such as , low fuel
efficiency, poor technical performance, maintenance of a large
number of water supply facilities, and high maintenance cost makes
them to be replaced by alternative traction systems and hence the
electric traction.
 The following are the two types of non electric traction systems.
1. Steam engine drive based vehicles (used for railways)
2. Internal combustion (IC) engine drive based vehicles (used for road
transport)
 ELECTRIC TRACTION SYSTEM-
 Electric traction involves the use of electricity at some stage or all the stages
of locomotive movement. This system includes straight electrical drive,
diesel electric drive and battery operated electric drive vehicles.
 In this, electrical motors are used for producing the vehicle movement and
are powered by drawing electricity from utilities or diesel generators or
batteries.
 It has many advantages over non-electric traction systems such as more
clean and easy to handle, no need of coal and water, easy speed control,
high efficiency, low maintenance and running costs, etc.
 As mentioned above, electric traction systems can be self contained
locomotives or vehicles that receive power from electric distribution system
(substations). Self contained locomotives includes
• Battery operated electrical drives
• Diesel operated electrical drives
 Vehicles that receives the power from substation is also referred as a third
rail systems which includes
• Railway electric vehicles fed from overhead AC or DC supply
• Trolley buses or tramways supplied with DC supply (i.e., battery electric
drives)
 However, the electric drive system has certain advantages over other systems. So,
electric drive system is widely used in rail traction.
 Advantages of Electric Traction system:
1. Cleanliness: This is the most important advantage of electric traction. There is
no involvement of burning fossil fuels and hence there is no smoke and ash. Due
to this reason it is mostly used in underground and tube railways.
2. Maintenance: The maintenance time required by the electric locomotive is less
as compared to steam or diesel locomotive. Also the maintenance cost required
for electric locomotive is 50% that of steam or diesel locomotive.
3. No vibrations: The vibrations exerted by electric locomotives are less because
the torque produced by the electric motors is continuous without any jerk.
4. High starting torque: electric locomotives have high starting torque as compared
to other locomotives. Due to this it is also possible to achieve high rate of
acceleration of about 2.5kmphps. Because of this it is possible to achieve high
speed.
5. Economical in use: electric traction transportation is four times
economical as well as six times energy efficient as compared to road
transportation.
6. Starting time: electric locomotives are not having any starting period;
rather it can be started as and when required whereas other locomotives
take 1-2 hours for starting.
7. Less noise operation: An electric locomotive has quiet operation as
compared to steam or diesel locomotives. It will cause lesser noise
pollution.
8. Zero consumption of fossil fuel: There is no dependency on fossil fuels.
So, the necessity of storage for these fuels is not required. Electricity is
acting as fuel and it can be taken directly from overhead lines running
over the locomotives.
 Supply Systems of Electric Traction
 The track electrification refers to the type of source supply system that is used
while powering the electric locomotive systems. It can be AC or DC or a
composite supply.
 Selecting the type of electrification depends on several factors like availability of
supply, type of an application area, or on the services like urban, suburban and
main line services, etc.
 The three main types of electric traction systems that exist are as follows:
1. Direct Current (DC) electrification system: 600 V, 750 V, 1500 V.
2. Alternating Current (AC) electrification system:
i) Single phase AC system: 15-25 kV, 16.67, 25 and 50 Hz
ii) Three phase AC system: 3000-3500 V at 16.67 Hz
3. Composite system:
i) Single phase to three phase system called as Kando system
ii) Single phase to DC system
1) Direct Current (DC) electrification system
 The choice of selecting DC electrification system encompasses many
advantages, such as space and weight considerations, rapid acceleration and
braking of DC electric motors, less cost compared to AC systems, less
energy consumption and so on.

Fig. (a)
 In this type of system, three-phase power received from the power grids is
de-escalated to low voltage and converted into DC by the rectifiers
and power-electronic converters.
 This type of DC supply is supplied to the vehicle through two different ways:
the first way is through the 3rd rail system (side running and under running
electrified track and providing return path through running rails), and the
second way is through the overhead line DC system.
 This DC is fed to the traction motor like the DC series or compound motors
to drive the locomotive, as shown in the above figure(a)
 The supply systems of DC electrification include 300-500V supply for the
special systems like battery systems (600-1200V) for urban railways like
tramways and light metros, and the 1500-3000V for suburban and mainline
services like light metros and heavy metro trains. The 3rd (conductor rail)
and 4th rail systems operate at low voltages (600-1200V) and high currents,
whereas the overhead rail systems use high voltages (1500-3000V) and low
currents.
 Due to high starting torque and moderate speed control, the DC series motors
are extensively employed in the DC traction systems. They provide high
torque at low speeds and low torque at high speeds.
 An electric motor speed controller is used by varying the voltage applied to it.
The Special drive systems that are used to control these electric motors
include tap changer, thyristor control, chopper control and micro processor
control drives.
 The disadvantages of this system include difficulty in interruption of currents
at high voltages when fault condition is raised, and the need for locating DC
substations between short distances.
TRAMWAYS
THIRD RAIL SYSTEM
Alternating Current (AC) electrification system
 An AC traction system has become very popular nowadays, and it is more
often used in most of the traction systems due to several advantages, such as
quick availability and generation of AC that can be easily stepped up or down,
easy controlling of AC motors, less number of substations requirement, and
the presence of light overhead catenaries that transfer low currents at high
voltages, and so on.
 The supply systems of AC electrification include single, three phase, and
composite systems. The Single phase systems consist of 11 to 15 KV supply
at 16.7Hz, and 25Hz to facilitate variable speed to AC commutation motors.
It uses step down transformer and frequency converters to convert from the
high voltages and fixed industrial frequency.
 The Single phase 25KV at 50Hz is the most commonly used configuration for AC
electrification. It is used for heavy haul systems and main line services since it
doesn’t require frequency conversion. This is one of the widely used types of
composite systems wherein the supply is converted to DC to drive DC traction
motors.

Fig. (b)
 Three phase system uses three phase induction motor to drive the locomotive,
and it is rated at 3.3.KV, 16.7Hz. The high-voltage distribution system at 50
Hz supply is converted to this electric motor rating by transformers and
frequency converters.
 This system employs two overhead lines, and the track rail forms another
phase, but this raises many problems at crossings and junctions.
 The above figure shows AC electric locomotive operation wherein the catenary
system receives single-phase power from the overhead system.
 The supply is stepped up by the transformer, and then converted to DC by a
rectifier.
 A smoothening reactor or a DC link, filters and smoothens DC to reduce the
ripples, and then the DC is converted to AC by an inverter that varies
frequency to get variable speed of the traction motor
Composite system
 This system incorporates the advantages of both DC and AC systems.
 These systems are of mainly two types: a single phase to three phases or
Kando system, and the other single phase to DC system.

Fig. (c)
 In a Kando system, a single overhead line carries the single-phase supply of
16KV, 50Hz.
 This high voltage is stepped down and converted to three-phase supply of same
frequency in the locomotive itself through the transformer and converters.
 This three-phase supply is further supplied to the three-phase induction motor
that drives the locomotive. Since the two-overhead line system of the three-
phase system is replaced by a single overhead line by this system, it is
economical.
 As we have already discussed in the AC electrification that a single-phase to
DC system is highly popular, it is the most economical way of single overhead
line and has wide variety of DC series motor characteristics.
 In this particular system, a single-phase 25KV, 50Hz supply of overhead line
system is stepped down by transformer inside the locomotive, and then
converted to DC by rectifiers.
 The DC is fed to the DC-drive system to drive the series motor and to control
its speed and braking systems.
Fig. (d)
CONSTITUENTS OF SUPPLY SYSTEM-

Various elements of power supply system are:

1. Substations
2. Feeding posts
3. Sectioning and paralleling posts
4. Sub-sectioning and paralleling posts
5. Sub-sectioning posts
6. Elementary sections
1) SUBSTATION:

Fig.(a)
 Layout diagram of a typical traction substation is as shown in fig(a) above.
 Continuity of supply to the substation has to be ensured under all conditions.
 For this purpose high voltage feed to the substations is always arranged from
two sources of supply or by double circuit 132 kV 50 Hz 3-phase transmission
line.
 In the event of failure of one source of supply, the other remains intact to render
service.
 In order to maintain power supply under all conditions, rapid isolation of fault
in the transmission line and substation is ensured by the provision of suitable
protective equipment.
 At each substation are provided two sets of 132 kV busbars- one called the main
busbar and the other maintenance or transfer busbar.
 Both of these busbars are connected through bus coupler circuit breaker.
 The incoming and outgoing transmission lines are connected to both the busbars
as shown in fig.(a).
 Isolators on both sides of circuit breakers and provision of transfer busbar and
bus coupler enable maintenance of circuit breakers and busbars possible while
maintaining the continuity of supply.
 Normally two single phase transformers each of 10 or 12.5 MVA 132/25 kV
are employed.
 Of the two transformers only one will be on operation normally, the other one
acting as a standby.
 The function of the transformers is to step down the voltage from 132 kV to 25
kV.
 The power from the substation is carried by two 25 kV feeders to the feeding
posts located near the tracks.
2) FEEDING POST:

Fig(b)
 Layout of feeding post is as shown in fig.(b).
 Normally there are two feeders running in between substation and feeding
posts.
 Each feeder has two conductors, one insulated for 25 kV connection to the
busbar and the other for 3 kV for connection to the track for return current.
 Cross section of the conductors is 20 sq. mm. of copper of 400 sq. mm. of
A.C.S.R.
 These feeders are connected to two sets of busbars of feeding post through two
oil circuit breakers.
 These two sets of busbars are connected together through bus coupler which
along with input circuit breakers enable OHE to be fed even if one of the
feeders is out of action for maintenance purpose or due to fault.
 Feeding posts are located as close to the substation as possible, maximum
distance being 2 km.
 Usually 25 kV circuit breakers of feeding post are controlled from a remote
control centre of the railway.
 Interlocked double pole isolating switches are provided on both sides of every
C.B. to enable its complete isolation and to ensure full safety for maintenance
staff.
 In the case of two track lines there are four interrupters, two for each feeder
and supplying two tracks on one side of feeding post only.
 Interruptor is supposed to close or open for normal load conditions only.
 Since it is not equipped with any protective relays to trip it automatically in the
event of fault as in the case of circuit breaker, it is not meant for automatic
breaking of fault currents.
 Interruptors are normally arranged for remote control operation but they have
provision for manual operation if required.
3) FEEDING AND SECTIONING
ARRANGEMENTS:

Fig.(c)
 Power generation and transmission systems of supply authorities are of 3
phase type. Electric traction on the other hand needs single phase supply.
 If all the traction load is put on one phase only, it would bring about
unbalanced conditions.
 This, besides causing inconvenience to other consumers due to phase shift, is
very harmful to the alternator as it produces lot of rotor heating due to double
frequency currents induced in the rotor by rotating magnetic field produced by
negative phase sequence currents.
 As such unbalanced conditions beyond certain limit are not permitted to exist,
effort is therefore made to supply power to the consecutive substations from
different phases in in rotation as shown in fig.(c).
 Zones fed by adjacent substations will, therefore, be across different phases,
each acting as a separate independent unit and never working in parallel.
 In order to separate the two sections of OHE fed from two adjacent
substations, neutral section is provided approximately in between two adjacent
substations.
 The purpose of providing neutral section is to separate the zones fed by two
adjacent substations so that it is not possible for a pantograph of electric train
to bridge two different live phases of 25 kV supply while passing from the
zone fed from preceeding substation to the zone fed by next substation.
 Since neutral section is dead, it becomes necessary for the driver of an electric
train to switch off power before approaching neutral section and coast through
it to the other zone.
 For this, warning boards are provided to draw the attention of driver.
4) SECTIONING AND PARALLELING POST:

Fig. d
 Fig. d depicts the power supply arrangement for a two track line in between a feeding post and
a neutral section.
 As shown in the figure sectioning and paralleling post consists of two paralleling interruptors
to parallel OHE of up and down tracks, one on the each side of neutral section.
 Two bridging interruptors, provided with under volt relay, are installed with a view to permit
feeding of section, normally supplied by the adjacent feeding post, in case of an emergency
when its 25 kV supply is interrupted for some reason.
 Bridging interruptors are normally kept open except when an emergency feed is required.
 It should only be closed after taking special precautions to warn the drivers to drop their
pantograph when passing the feeding post up to which feed is extended.
 This is necessary because no neutral section is provided in front of a feeding post except only
an insulated overlap.
 Each substation has to feed two sections, each section comprising of up and down tracks
between feeding post and neutral section on one side.
 Providing a circuit breaker, supply to each section is controlled.
 5) SUBSECTIONING AND PARALLELING POST:
 As shown in fig. d each section is subdivided by the provision of one or more
subsectioning and paralleling posts normally at a distance of every 10 to 15
Km.
 The purpose of this is mainly to isolate the faulty part from the healthy part.
 Each subsectioning and paralleling post consists of two interrupters usually 600
Ampere capacity, bridging adjacent substations and one interruptor for
paralleling the up and down tracks.
 At some stations with large yards, change over switches are sometimes
provided so that supply may be derived either from OHE of one subsection or
the other.
 Normally it is locked in one position but in an emergency it an be changed over
after taking necessary precautions.
 6) SUBSECTIONING POST:

 This is same as subsectioning and paralleling post except that there is no

interruptor for paralleling up and down tracks. This is provided very rarely.

7) ELEMENTARY SECTION:

 Subsection distance of 10 to 15 Km is also too long in case of fault requiring

repairs and maintenance of long duration.
 Therefore with a view to ensure rapid isolation of fault on OHE and to facilitate
maintenance work, each subsection is further divided into elementary sections.
 Two adjacent elementary sections are separated by insulated overlap bridged by
isolators which are manually operated on no load.
 Miscellaneous Equipments at Control Posts or
Switching Stations:
1. Lightening Arrestors: Lightening Arrestors are provided at control posts to
protect every subsection against voltage surges. Earth connection to
Lightening Arrestor should have copper equivalent area of 50 sq. mm.
2. Auxiliary Transformer: Auxiliary Transformer of 25 kV / 230 V,10 kVA
capacity is installed to provide 230 V, 50 Hz supply required for the
operation of remote control equipment, charging the batteries, signaling and
lighting installations.
3. Potential Transformers: Potential Transformers provide continuous
indication regarding the condition of supply to each subsector at remote
control centre.
4. Battery Charging unit: For the operation of remote control equipment and
interruptors, batteries are needed. Therefore, battery charging arrangements
are provided at each control post.
 MAJOR EQUIPMENTS AT SUBSTATIONS:
1. Transformer:
 Transformer is the major component of traction substation. Normally step
down transformer is used to step down the high voltage level from 220 kV
– 132 kV to a working voltage level of 25 kV. The capacity of the
transformer is normally from 15MVA – 32.5MVA.
 These transformers are oil immersed. This not only provides cooling but
also insulation. Traction transformers are specially designed to endure
severe working conditions as compared to ordinary transformer.
 Since transformer is oil immersed it is provided with buchholz relay along
with standard accessories such as breather, oil level indicator, drain valve,
filtering valve, conservator tank.
 Traction transformer is specially designed to withstand severe short circuit
conditions. They are required to have short time peak capacity.
 In order to meet this requirement, traction transformer has A class type
insulation, so as to withstand the short circuit of 25 kV over head lines. They
can tolerate the temperature as much as 110-120% instantaneous of their rated
value.
 Traction transformers are generally provided with off load tap changer instead
of on load tap changer since the primary is connected to the grid network
where voltage is maintained within permissible limits.
 Off load tappings are provided on the primary side at -10%, -5%, 0% and 10%
of rated voltage.
 These transformers are provided with other standard accessories such as oil
level indicator, drain valve, filtering valve, conservator tank, dial gauge
thermometer, relief tank and thermometers to indicate the rise in oil
temperature.
2. Circuit Breaker:
 Circuit Breaker is a switch which operates automatically under faulty
conditions such as overload or short circuit to protect an electrical circuit from
damage. Its basic function is to identify faulty condition and break off the
current flow.
 It can be observed that there are two sets of circuit breakers, namely
Transformer Circuit Breakers and Feeder Circuit Breakers.
 Transformer Circuit Breaker on 25 kV side usually remains closed and is
intended to trip only on the occurrence of internal fault on the transformer.
 Feeder Circuit Breaker on the other hand operates on the occurrence of fault in
the OHE.
 The Circuit Breaker has rated capacity of 750 Amps, at 25 kV and rupturing
capacity of 500 MVA.
 There are various types of Circuit Breakers available according to the type of
arc extinguishing media.
 But mostly Minimum oil Circuit Breaker is preferred to the substation
application.
 Overall tripping time of minimum oil circuit breaker is 0.14 seconds
composed of 0.04 second for relay operation and 0.1 second for opening of
breaker contacts.
3. Interruptor:
 Interruptor is a non-automatic type circuit breaker installed at feeding,
subsectioning and paralleling posts and sub-sectioning posts.
 It is not provided with protective relays and as such cannot operate
automatically in the event of any fault being developed in the system.
 It is however capable of opening and closing the OHE by remote control
from remote control centre by traction power controller.
 Circuit breakers and Interruptors are provided with following interlocks:
i. It should not be possible to operate double pole switches unless the
interruptor or circuit breaker is in open position. This is to avoid sparking at
the switches.
ii. It should not be possible to open the door, if any, into the bay of circuit
breaker or interruptor unless double pole switch is locked in open position.
iii. When the key of circuit breaker or interruptor has been placed for operation
locally, it should not be possible to operate it on remote control.
 PROTECTIVE SYSTEM FOR AC TRACTION:
1) TRANSFORMER PROTECTION:

Fig. e
 As shown in fig.(e) following protective arrangement is adopted for transformer.
a) An inverse time over current induction relay is provided as a back up protection on
the primary side which is arranged to trip the circuit breaker on the H.V. side. One
over current induction relay is also provided on the L.V. side which will trip 25 kV
transformer circuit breaker.
b) One overload thermal relay is also provided on the secondary side for protection
against sustained overloads. With the use of this relay full benefit of allowable
overload for specified time can easily be obtained as it is made to operate
corresponding to thermal characteristic of the transformer.
c) Tank of the transformer which is mounted on concrete foundation is connected by
ground lead to the main earthing system of substation through a series current
transformer. Instantaneous earth fault relay operates from the series connected
transformer. This protection will be ineffective if there exists any parallel path
between transformer tank and main earthing system.
d) As the transformer is oil immersed, Buchholz relay is very much applicable to protect
the transformer by providing alarms on incipient faults and trip command on severe
faults.
2) 25 kV CATENARY PROTECTION
 It is very much necessary that railway catenary remains in the exact desired
position to the tracks. This will ensure the good current collection by the
train pantographs.
 The catenary is designed to operate constantly at a temperature
corresponding to its rated full load conditions, where heat generation is
balanced with heat dissipated radiated etc.
 Protection scheme of 25 kV catenary is somewhat different since the
maximum load current is more than the short circuit current if it takes place
at the farthest point.
 Therefore normal over current protection does not discriminate between load
current and fault current.
 Following protections are provided to the 25 kV Catenary:
Fig. f: Range of operation of different types of relays
1) Over Current Relay: When the fault takes place near to the substation,
fault current magnitude is sufficiently large than full load current. Therefore
normal over current relay is used to serve this purpose for faults near to
substation.
2) Under Voltage Relay: Under voltage relay is used to provide protection
against faults away from the substation. Fig (f) shows the range of operation
of various relays which has to be overlapping.
3) MHO relay: This provides protection against inadvertent coupling of two
adjacent sections of OHE fed from different phases.