Study of Performance of RZhFA‑6500 Smoothing Reactors

Abstract

DC traction power supply systems have become widespread in several countries. Electricity consumption by traction power supply systems has pronounced seasonal and daily peaks. The peak nature of consumption leads to additional heating of live parts since time constants of transient thermal and electrophysical processes differ by several orders of magnitude, therefore, reducing ohmic resistance of electrical equipment, other things being equal, is an extremely important task.Within the framework of solving the problem of increasing energy efficiency of equipment of DC traction substations, smoothing reactor filter devices with an armoured radial-cylindrical magnetic core with low ohmic resistance, named RZhFA‑6500, were developed and manufactured.In 2018, two blocks of RZhFA‑6500 smoothing reactors were put into pilot operation at one of the most heavily loaded sections of DC electrified railways, providing traffic of trains weighing up to 9000 tons and traffic volume of about a hundred pairs of trains per day.To determine comparative indicators of energy efficiency, data on consumption of electric power for traction of trains for the compared periods before and after introduction of smoothing reactors of a new type were requested. The data received from JSC Russian Railways contained information on the traffic volume, type of rolling stock, and weight of the transported goods in accordance with the executed traffic schedule through section under consideration. The resulting set of data served as the basis for development of a multivariate methodology for assessing energy efficiency of reactors of a new type, as well as their contribution to efficiency of train operation over the considered comparative time interval. Since efficiency of power equipment also depends on the ambient temperature, the average integral parameter of average daily temperature was introduced into the calculation methodology, which, as it turned out, during processing initial data and construction of characteristic graphical dependencies, has a comparative difference of less than one percent for the same monitored periods.Accurate quantitative accounting of the data on consumption of electrical energy provided for traction of trains, exchange of reactive energy with the supply network, volume of transportation allowed to obtain an objective comparison of contribution of smoothing reactors of a new type to increasing efficiency of train operation and reducing consumption of electrical energy for traction of trains.