EVALUATION OF TRACTION POWER CONSUMPTION

CONTROL SYSTEM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

And its Basic Components

Jindrich Sadil, Zuzana Belinova, Vaclav Vodrazka, Jindrich Krasa, Jakub Rajnoch, Petr Bouchner

Department of Control and Telematics,Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Trasnsportation Sciences,

Konviktska 20, Prague 1, Czech Republic

Keywords: Traction, Systems Control,

Telematics.

Abstract: Our work should help to the higher effectiveness of traction power consumption. The traction power for

railwa

y comes from the regional distribution companies of the electric energy in the Czech Republic. The

aim is to make cost connected with given criteria of power consumption lower. For example in the Czech

Republic it is a cost connected with breach of conditions given by the “Price Decision of the Czech

Energetic Regulation Office (ERU) no. 10/2004”. But the scale of our work should be much larger, because

each state has its specific conditions of power consumption and the work can solve universal case. It could

be done by means of the system, which would use the new knowledge of informatics, telematics and system

engineering. This paper discusses the state at this time at this field nowadays and possible application in the

territory of ex-district North Moravia and Silesia, which is a part of the Czech Republic. This area is an

integrated part of the country, which electricity is separately accounted for.

1 INTRODUCTION

Power supply of the Czech Railway, joint stock

company (CD) represents a complicated system,

which has functioned since the half of the 20-th

century. Devices of electric traction supply system

must fulfil legislative enactments of the railway law

and energetic law through its construction and

function, satisfy a request of international transport

(interoperability) and satisfy a request of cost

minimization as well. All these requests are often

antagonistic and it is necessary to do several

compromises (Matejka, 2004).

The process of current railway corridor

odernisation has been connected especially with

reconstruction of the tracks of international

importance. The reconstructions of the tracks partly

contained the traction supply stations (TNS) as well

and they enabled to replace technically old devices

through the modern components. Furthermore they

enabled to adapt points of supply, so that they satisfy

new energetic requirements based on new energetic

calculations. Finally, they enabled to apply

electronics for measuring, control and information

transfer in much larger scale (Matejka, 2004).

2 RESERVED CAPACITY OF

POWER LINE

Traction rectifier stations, traction supply stations of

the 3 kV DC system, are connected to the electric

line of any distribution company with different

voltage levels. These are either the voltage level HV

(high voltage) 6, 10, 22 or 35 kV, or the voltage

level EHV (extra high voltage) 110, 220 or 400 kV.

It is necessary to follow actual price decision of

U no. 10/2004, which defines prices of electricity

and connected services (Czech Energetic Regulation

Office Price Decision, 2004). Price decision

mentions among other thinks also the price for

reserved capacity. The reserved capacity (in the past

also “quarter an hour maximum”) is the maximum

value of quarter an hour electric power, which can

the consumer consume in one supply point from

devices of operator of the distribution network. If the

supply point is connected from more voltage levels,

then the prices for reserved capacity are enforced

individual for every voltage level. The price for

reserved capacity for consumption from regional

distribution network is enforced to calendar year

with a fixed month price for year reserved capacity

328

Sadil J., Belinova Z., Vodrazka V., Krasa J., Rajnoch J. and Bouchner P. (2005).

EVALUATION OF TRACTION POWER CONSUMPTION CONTROL SYSTEM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - And its Basic Components.

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Signal Processing, Systems Modeling and

Control, pages 328-331

DOI: 10.5220/0001158503280331

 SciTePress

Table 1: Prices for reserved capacity of power line (Czech Energetic Regulation Office Price Decision, 2004)

or to calendar month with a fixed month price for

month reserved capacity. It is possible to combine

the month price for year reserved capacity with

month price for month reserved capacity for given

calendar year. The price for reserved capacity is

given for each operator of regional distribution

system. For the territory of SME it is seen in Table 1

on the top of this page.

The prices in SME territory rose in one year

about 17 percent (Czech Energetic Regulation

Office Price Decision, 2003) (Czech Energetic

Regulation Office Price Decision, 2004). The price

for reserved capacity overload in each calendar

month is equal to ten times amount of fixed month

price for year reserved capacity, based on each kW

of the highest overload of contracted maximal value

of quarter an hour electric power.

3 TRACTION POWER

CONSUMPTION CONTROL

SYSTEM IN NORTH MORAVIA

Czech Railway concludes traction power

consumption contracts with regional distribution

companies by means of Railway Power Engineering

Management (SZE), coming subsidiary company of

CD. There is defined the reserved capacity of

electric line in these contracts. The reserved capacity

is the value of maximal consumed power [kW],

consumer (CD) guaranties to consume. It is

measured in points of supply through 15 minutes

work [kWh].

In SME region the 3 kV DC system for traction

is used. Altogether 16 supply stations are used in

this region. 7 ones are connected to EHV level and 9

ones are connected to HV level. It is crucial for

conclusion of reserved capacity and for penalty

paying for breach of concluded value, to which

voltage level is the supply station connected. SZE

concludes reserved capacity for the whole voltage

level together, not for each supply station

individually. At the same time, network of the

supply station is so distributed, that often supply

stations of different voltage levels neighbor on each

other.

Concluded reserved capacity overrun takes place

on the part of CD in the real traffic, nowadays. This

fact is back-found out, because the recovered energy

measuring runs. Our work should develop a system,

which would measure the recovered power in the all

supply stations more often (for example each

minute) and which would add the power values of

the all supply stations of appropriated voltage level.

The system would find out in time, that in

appropriate quarter of an hour comes to concluded

reserved capacity overrun (for given voltage level)

and it would send a command to a switch switch-off

of some supply station of that voltage level, in that it

comes to limit overrun. This supply station excess

would cover the neighboring supply stations of the

different voltage level.

3.1 Data analysis

Present work has concentrated to discussions with

SZE. The result is data for SME-region for the year

2003 sent to me (the first author). The data

contained recovered work power of the all 16 supply

stations of the North Moravia each 15 minutes in the

year. It was mentioned the concluded reserved

capacity for the year 2004 for each voltage level in

SME region as well.

After data processing I found out, that if the

electricity consumptions in 2004 were equal to the in

2003 ones, then would be paid a sum of 2.500.000,-

CZK (82.318,-EUR) in North Moravia region in

2004. In the next year 2005 about 17 % more,

because of reserved capacity price increase. In these

values can be the cost saving (only in SME region)

expected, after concluded values overrun reduction

system implementation.

Furthermore, I found out, that overrun of the

concluded values would happen only 16 times,

namely in 5 days. It would suffice just 16 actions

yearly. Additionally, by checking all of the 16

overruns, there was only the value of one voltage

level above the limit, while the other voltage level

value was deep under the limit (see Fig. 1 and 2).

Supply stations are well distributed, so that the

supply stations of one voltage level can substitute

the supply station of other voltage level (see Fig. 3).

EVALUATION OF TRACTION POWER CONSUMPTION CONTROL SYSTEM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - And its

Basic Components

329

Figure 1: Example of power consumption during a day in

SME region in HV and EHV voltage level

Figure 2: Example of power consumption during a day in

3 different North Moravia supply stations

Figure 3: Traction supply stations in North Moravia region and their voltage levels, they are connected to

3.2 Control system improvement

Taking the facts mentioned above into account it is

possible to consider intelligent control system

application. This system would collect data in real

time at first. It would send them to the control

centre. The control centre would process the data. If

there would be a reasonable suspicion to overrun the

reserved capacity limit, the control centre would

send a command back to one or more supply stations

of appropriate voltage level to switch off its switch.

In the beginning of the next quarter an hour it would

send a command to these supply stations to switch

on again. The system is outlined on the Fig. 4.

3.3 Data collection

Data collection is not complicated in modernized

supply stations. The value gained from measuring

devices is digitalized and transferred to data sender.

This functions already at this time.

3.4 Data transmission

Important part of the problem is to provide data

transmission from the supply stations to the centre,

which would be fast and reliable enough. The supply

stations distance from the centre is usually less than

fifty kilometre but we must take into account the

distance up to 150 km. The aim is to find out the

solution, which would be possible to apply in a fast,

ICINCO 2005 - SIGNAL PROCESSING, SYSTEMS MODELING AND CONTROL

330

easy and cheap way. Wireless technologies are

suitable, as they don’t require large infrastructure

building.

Currently the data transmission is realized via

GPRS - involving overlaying a packet based air

interface on the existing circuit switched GSM

network. The advantage in using GSM is the fact

that it is a global, unified system with large signal

coverage. In the future, it would be possible to use

GSM specially developed for the railway

applications: GSM-R.

GSM-R mobile radio has been standardized in a

process involving the UIC (International Union of

Railways), ETSI (European Telecommunications

Standards Institute) and other bodies (GSM-R

website). It is operating on the frequencies 876 - 880

MHz and 921 - 925 MHz. It is part of the ERTMS

(European Traffic Management System).

Main services, offered by GSM-R system, are

the same as in the public networks. Unlike the public

networks, where the services are for all the users

provided with the same priority, the GSM-R system

is based on in advance defined priorities for various

user groups. The availability, quality and security of

the connection are stressed.

The data could be send into the centre with pre-

defined priority either directly via GSM-R (the data

amount is very low) or via GPRS over GSM-R. In

case of need (exceeding the reserved capacity) the

centre would send the command to switch over to

another supply station with high priority.

The implementation of the GSM-R in the Czech

Republic has started in January 2005 by building-up

first antenna masts (David, 2005). The whole pilot

project should be completed in July 2005. In the first

phase of the project several lines from the German

border to Prague and to other locations, including

international corridors, are planned and ready for

implementation.

Until this time, regarding the great distances and

small amount of data, GPRS remains the most

convenient mean of transmission and it is also for

data sending currently used.

The economical convenience of GPRS

technology results from its ability to keep track of

the amount of transmitted data and thus tariff-charge

the user. A great advantage of the GPRS technology

rests in the permanent access to the data channel

even if data is not being transmitted.

3.5 Control centre

The control centre could be very easy. The only one

requirement for the control centre is to add all the

values of appropriate voltage level, extrapolate the

value during couple of minutes to whole 15 minutes

and decide if it is not going to overrun. If so, then

send a command to switch off.

4 CONCLUSION

We will still attend to developing of traction power

consumption control system. We will try to put

particular components of the system together and to

realise a pilot operation of this system.

The informatics and telematics for railway

traction is just in the beginning in the Czech

Republic. Relative quick applications developing,

using modern knowledge of these fields with the aim

of cost reduction is expected.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Project is realised with a finance support of state

means by means of Czech Science Foundation (GA CR)

under project registration no. 102/05/H517.

REFERENCES

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rozhodnuti ERU 26/2003 kterym se stanovuji ceny

elektriny a souvisejicich sluzeb)

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Horak, K., 1989. Electrified railway supply (Power

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R: SZDC buduje nove technologie)

GSM-R website http://gsm-r.uic.asso.fr/

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Basic Components

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