Evaluating on-board energy storage systems using multi-train simulator RTSS

The pure electric braking system for railcars, in which the braking effort necessary for service braking can be provided solely by regenerative brake for the entire speed range, is quite attractive from the point of view of energy-savings and ease of maintenance. However, it is likely that the large power to be regenerated by pure electric braking railcars at higher speeds will cause greater losses and lower line receptivity in the power supply network; therefore the authors believe that the on-board energy storage systems (OBESS´s) are required to realise pure electric braking in railcars for DC railways. Clever charge/discharge control must be devised to make effective use of the storage capacity of OBESS´s. The authors propose a control scheme using reference SOC data pre-calculated for a given route and schedule, and show how it can be evaluated using a multi-train simulation program.