HESOP 1500V REVERSIBLE TRACTION POWER SUBSTATION

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Tao LIU , Nicolas NEVOT .
1
ALSTOM. Saint-Ouen. France
2
ALSTOM. Saint-Ouen. France
*tao.liu@alstom.com*

Abstract

The LIFE+ programme of the European Commission has considered Alstom’s HESOP Reversible DC
Substation as a very effective and environmentally-friendly solution. The selected project consists in a
pilot Reversible 1500 VDC power-supply Substation located at Rogoredo station on Milan Metro Line 3.

The European Union Transport Policy has set up ambitious goals to reduce the CO 2 emitted by
transports. One of its principal objectives by the year 2020 is to achieve a gain in energy efficiency over
vehicles or product life cycles.

The recovery of braking energy has been considered as one of the most effective ways to reduce CO2
footprint in transport.

Nowadays, modern railway trains are fitted as a standard with regenerative dynamic braking: other
nearby accelerating trains can reuse the energy generated by a braking train, but the rest is lost.

Indeed, almost all Direct Current systems (Light Rail Transit, Metro, or Suburban, Regional and Main
lines in some countries), cannot send back braking energy into the Grid due to the unidirectional flow of
power in the diode rectifier substations.

Several solutions –braking energy storage (flying wheels or capacitors / batteries) or inverters (Thyristor
or IGBT) – have been developed.

However, none of those solutions are able to guarantee the performance of the energy quality and
recovery, of infrastructure cost savings and of operations that Alstom’s HESOP™, an advanced “all-in-
one” reversible substation, is able to provide.

HESOP™ is made of a specific single converter with dynamic regulation, which optimizes the power
required for traction and captures the recoverable energy in braking mode. Additionally, thanks to its full
IGBT technology, it offers an optimized system for traction and captures more than 99% of the available
braking energy.

The objectives of the HESOP™ LIFE+ program are:

 15% CO2 reduction from traction energy consumption,

 Modularity: the innovative solution should be applied universally to all DC fed systems,
 Eco-design

To reach these objectives, HESOP™ regroups, in a consortium, the Alstom expertise of rail
infrastructure manufacturers providing their know-how, design capabilities and manufacturing means at
all stages of the project and ATM, responsible of the management of the Milan public transport system
in the urban area and in 87 municipalities in the Province.

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This program is implemented in 4 phases (2012-2016)

 Design, technology implementation, testing & installation

 Large scale demonstration & Collection of data on Milan Metro
 Validation of the targets assigned to the project
 Dissemination activities

This program is clearly aligned with the EU Parliament decision dated July 6th, 2010 to lower CO 2
emissions from Transport Sector.

1. Introduction

As a response to operators’ economical and environmental concerns, Alstom designed HESOP™, an

advanced power-supply substation designed to deliver the best energy efficiency and reduced
infrastructure cost, for urban and suburban rail transport networks.

HESOP™’s novelty lies in its specific single IGBT converter with dynamic regulation which brings
benefits to improve the global energy efficiency of a traction line from construction to operation and
maintenance phases for the different actors of a project.

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Thanks to its dynamic voltage regulation, HESOP helps to optimize power supply infrastructure and
enables to increase the distance between substations and thereby reduces their number: 5 to 7
conventional substations can be replaced by only 4 to 6 HESOP™ substations, depending on the layout
and operating data. This results in less infrastructure investment, i.e. real estate and civil works.

Consequently as fewer substations are installed for the same operation performance, the total line
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installed power is reduced. In addition as HESOP is designed to limit harmonics to a low level (THDi <
5%) and to compensate the power factor (Cos phi = 1 or adjustable) avoiding penalties from the grid
supplier, the energy contract can be reduced and optimized.

This feature is reinforced by the recovery function of the converter. Unlike inverters or stationary storage
solutions (fixed voltage set point), HESOP™ is equipped with dynamic voltage regulation, which allows
to capture over 99% of the energy usually lost during braking, while maintaining natural exchange of

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energy between trains. The energy recovered can be re-injected into the electricity network or re-used
through in-station electro-mechanical equipment: lifts, escalators, lighting and ventilation. This implies
traction energy savings by up to 40%, depending on the network’s operational specificities.
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If all the substations of a line are powered by HESOP , brake resistors from the trains can be removed
resulting in lighter trains, less heat dissipation and less rolling stock maintenance. Consequently, tunnel
ventilation and passenger station air-conditioning can also be reduced, leading to savings on civil
works,E&M equipment and energy consumption.

Finally, the line voltage stabilization function, permitting a stabilized and adjustable output voltage
independently of the variation of the incoming network, allows to eliminate feeders or reduce their
section and optimize rolling stock operating voltage or increasing traffic.

2. Description of 1500Vdc Life+ Unit

Jointly with ATM (Azienda Trasporti Milanesi), the operator of the Milan Metro, Alstom has initiated the
development of a new 1,500 V version of HESOP™ for metro lines and suburban trains that are high
energy consumers.

This project has been selected by the LIFE+ programme of the European Commission whose objective
is to promote environmentally-friendly actions. Its development is 50% funded by the European Union.

The converter is now under type tests before installation on Rogoredo substation on Milan Metro Line 3
planned in September 2016. The converter will remain in operation for at least 1 year to evaluate the
product performance within the Life+ programme.

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 TM
The HESOP 1500 VDC solution consists of the following equipment:

- 1 traction transformer to adapt the incoming voltage to the converter needs

- 1 AC filter to smooth the harmonics and control the power factor
- 1 converter including the IGBT controlled rectifier/inverter bridge and DC coupling contactor
associated to an isolating switch to connect/disconnect the unit of the DC line
- 1 DC inductance

HESOPTM CONVERTER
Controlled Coupling Isolating
Contactor Switch DC
IGBT Bridge Inductance
Traction TO DC
Transformer PROTECTION
BOARD

FROM HIGH
VOLTAGE
SWITCHBOARD

TO TRACKS
OR NEGATIVE
AC Filters
PANNEL

Single line diagram of HESOP 1500 VDC

3. Conclusion

HESOP™ is the only “all-in-one” solution that offers both traction and recovery functions within the
same equipment which optimizes the power required for traction, leading to savings on the
infrastructure investment on new lines, and captures more than 99% of recoverable energy (usually lost)
in braking mode.

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 TM
The HESOP solution is a global solution for energy efficiency of a traction line and addresses 600V to
1,500 VDC metro, tramway and suburban networks, new or existing.

HESOP™ was in service on Paris Tramway T1 (France) from July 2011 to December 2014 and is
currently in operation on London Underground’s Victoria Line (UK) (since March 2015). Other ongoing
deployments include Milan Tramway (Italy), Riyadh Metro (Saudi Arabia), Sydney Tramway (Australia)
and Panama Metro Line 2 (Panama).