Analysis, design and control of a hybrid railway power conditioner considering power rating reduction

In order to effectively compensate negative sequence current (NSC) of the V/v traction system and reduce the capacity and cost of railway power conditioner (RPC), a low-cost hybrid railway power conditioner (HRPC) technology scheme considering regenerative braking energy is proposed in this paper. The proposed HRPC consists of an RPC with a modular multilevel converter structure (MMC-RPC) and a railway static var compensator (RSVC). First, the circuit topology of the proposed scheme and the principle of NSC compensation considering regenerative braking energy are given. Then, the capacity configurations of MMC-RPC and RSVC are presented to reduce the capacity of active equipment and further lower the investment cost of HRPC. On this basis, the HRPC with energy storage units (ESU-HRPC) is studied to recycle the remaining regenerative braking energy, and the difference from the proposed HRPC is further analyzed. Subsequently, the capacities of HRPC and ESU-HRPC are designed based on the measured power data from a heavy-haul railway in China as an example. Besides, the system control strategy is given. Finally, the proposed technical schemes are verified by the hardware in loop (HIL) experiments.