Modeling of energy recovery processes in railway traction power supply systems

Regenerative braking of trains can provide significant energy saving and a sizeable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The efficiency of energy recovery can be defined using an efficiency indicator equal to the product of the free-fall acceleration and the fraction of potential energy used in the recovery. Its slope dependence is well approximated by a polynomial of the third degree. The operating conditions of the traction power supply system of the mountain pass section of the main railway were modeled. The results obtained allowed the following conclusions to arrive at: regenerative braking is accompanied by circulating currents in adjacent inter-substation areas and leads to an absolute and relative increase in electrical energy losses in the traction network; the share of active energy losses rises by several times; the energy recovery causes a change in the direction of active energy flows at traction substations with a steep increase in reactive power consumption by trains; the energy recovery produces a significant decrease in voltage on the current collectors of electric locomotives; the voltage on the section under consideration, with three trains weighing tons decreased to 23 kV due to the large reactive energy consumption. © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.