Optimal Capacity Estimation Method of the Energy Storage Mounted on a Wireless Railway Train for Energy-Sustainable Transportation

Although electric railway systems have gone through many technological innovations in their electrical, mechanical and structural engineering since the energy paradigm conversion to electrical energy, the conventional feeding system based on the catenary contact is still being applied. In order to solve the problems of the contact-based feeding system that arise and to build up the energy-sustainable electric railway system simultaneously, this paper considers the wireless railway train (WRT), which is fed by storages mounted on the board without catenary contact during driving and charged at a platform during a stop. In order to maximize the energy improvement of WRTs’ operation, the optimal power and storage capacity estimation method considering the increased weight of the additional storage devices is proposed. Through case studies of the electrical and topographical conditions of the actual operating railway route, compared with the electrical performance of the existing railway trains, it is verified that the application of WRTs leads to facility capacity margin enlargement through the peak power reduction, and cost-effectiveness improvement through the reduction of catenary loss and driving energy.