Energy Savings With Reversible Thyristor Controlled Rectifier

The paper deals with energy savings in Traction Systems available with Thyristor Controlled Rectifiers (TCR) and Reversible TCR (RTCR). TCR provides active voltage control, RTCR in addition has power recuperation into AC line. The energy balance of the TCR and diode rectifier systems are calculated, including losses in the rails, car’s power train and friction losses. The TCR advantages over diode rectifiers: better voltage regulation and fault current limiting allow us to reduce the number of substations and increase their service life. Major energy savings are through recuperation back to AC line using RTCR, with additional savings through increased DC bus voltage. The estimated energy savings depending on the system parameters, train speed profile, etc. can be as high as 50%.