An Optimization Procedure to Determine the Topology of AC Railways Power Supply Networks

This paper presents an optimization procedure to determine the topology of AC railways power supply networks: location and type of the substations, catenaries to be used, location of neutral zones and location of autotransformers in 2×25kV systems. In the proposed procedure, a mixed integer programming problem (MIP) is formulated in order to minimize the total construction cost associated to the power supply network while satisfying technical constraints to ensure proper behavior of power supply system. The performance of the proposed procedure is evaluated for a study case corresponding to a part of the new Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line and the obtained results are discussed.