Power Quality Phenomena in Electric Railway Power Supply Systems: An Exhaustive Framework and Classification

Electric railway power systems (ERPS) as one of the most critical and high-power end-user loads of utility grids are characterized by outlandish power quality (PQ) problems all over the world. The extension and evolution of different supply topologies for these systems has resulted in significant and various forms of distortions in network voltage and current in all ERPS, the connected power system, and adjacent consumers. During the last years, numerous studies have been offered to investigate various aspects of PQs in a specific supplying topology. Variation in the supply structure of the ERPS and different types of locomotives has propelled the observation of different PQ phenomena. This versatility and development have led to confront considerable types of two-way interactive interfaces as well as reliability and PQ problems in ERPS. In addition, the lack of standards explicitly dedicated to ERPS has added to the ambiguity and complexity of this issue. In this paper, an extensive review of PQ distortions and phenomena in different configurations of ERPS is proposed and a systematic classification is presented. More than 140 scientific papers and publications are studied and categorized which can provide a fast review and a perfect perspective on the status of PQ indexes for researchers and experts.

Modified Voltage Control Law for Low Frequency Railway Power Systems

In today’s Swedish and Norwegian low frequency railway power system the voltage at a converter is controlled such that its voltage will drop with increased reactive power output. However, for low frequency railways the influence of active power on voltage is larger compared to public power systems and alternative methods are interesting to investigate. This paper presents a modified voltage control law for increased load sharing between converter stations and reduce the risk for converter overload in low frequency railways power systems. The modified voltage control law is derived mathematically and tested with different droops for two case studies. The results confirms the increased load sharing between the converter stations. The results are analysed and discussed; ideas are presented to counteract some of the negative impacts of the modified voltage control law.