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Railway Energy Management System:

CentralizedDecentralized Automation
Architecture
Sara Khayyam, Student Member, IEEE, Ferdinanda Ponci, Senior Member, IEEE, Javier Goikoetxea,
Valerio Recagno, Valeria Bagliano, and Antonello Monti, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThe modern railway system is a massive grid connected complex system with distributed active loads (trains),
sources (particularly distributed renewable sources), and storage
(wayside or on-board storage systems). Its energy management
therefore requires the concepts and techniques used for managing energy in the smart grid (SG). Accordingly, the new
railway energy management system (REM-S) is developed to
integrate on-board, wayside, and coordination services. REM-S is
driven by the idea that regeneration, loads, storage, and volatile
distributed energy resources should be coordinated dynamically to achieve optimal energy usage. This paper presents
the proposed REM-S architecture, which is based on a hybrid
centralizeddecentralized concept and developed according to
SG architecture model framework.
Index TermsAutomation architecture, energy management,
railway system, smart grid (SG).

I. I NTRODUCTION
NERGY management is currently a big challenge for policy makers, utilities, industry managers, engineers, and
even residential consumers. Reduction of emissions, 2020 and
2050 EU energy targets [1], [2] are aimed at mainly through
increase of distributed energy resources (DERs) penetration,
net reduction of consumption, management of energy flows
for maximum usage of the available renewable energy, and
creation and exploitation of flexibility. In this context, the
European railways have committed to reduce their own emissions by 30% by 2020. Considering that in the European
railways, the share of electricity from distributed resources
is dramatically increasing [3], updating energy management
methods consistently is of great importance.
Distributed energy management systems (EMSs) are
frequently used in smart grid (SG) solutions. Home
EMSs [4], [5], smart city quarters, and smart cities are

Manuscript received June 30, 2014; revised November 20, 2014 and
February 25, 2015; accepted March 21, 2015. This work was supported by the
European Union through FP7 Project MERLIN (http://www.merlin-rail.eu/)
under Grant 314125. Paper no. TSG-00661-2014.
S. Khayyam, F. Ponci, and A. Monti are with the E.ON Energy
Research Center, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 52074, Germany (e-mail:
skhayyamim@eonerc.rwth-aachen.de).
J. Goikoetxea is with CAF Company, Beasain 20200, Spain.
V. Recagno and V. Bagliano are with DAppolonia Company, Genoa 16145,
Italy.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSG.2015.2421644

examples of distributed systems trying to achieve optimal

energy scheduling, while Costanzo et al. [6] proposed a system architecture for smart buildings and the focus of [7] is
optimal energy management of SGs considering unpredictable
load demands and DERs.
In the context of SG, energy management is already a key
issue for railway systems as a massive distributed system. The
variety of operational scenarios within the system adds complexity to the solutions suitable for all users, i.e., operators
and infrastructure managers (IM) alike. In this sense, several
European projects have been carried out since 2005 in railway
systems, such as MODURBAN (http://www.modurban.org/)
and OSIRIS (http://www.osirisrail.eu/) focusing on urban
railway systems or Railenergy (http://www.railenergy.org/)
with more technological emphasis on energy efficiency
improvement. Holistic, coherent information systems which
integrate major railway subsystems is the focus of projects
like InteGRail (http://www.integrail.eu/).
However, the findings of previous projects lack an integrated approach and they cannot tackle the energy management for the entire rail network. Hence, the MERLIN
project (http://www.merlin-rail.eu/) was defined to investigate
and demonstrate the viability of an integrated EMS and to
achieve a more sustainable and optimized energy usage in the
European electric mainline railway systems. This implies that
energy consumers, producers, and storages are not isolated
elements, but players of the global energy game. A smart and
coordinated contribution of each of them brings more savings
and provides more flexibility for the system to manage the
energy flow more efficiently.
The example of energy flow in the European electric mainline railway system shown in Fig. 1 indicates that the amount
of energy regenerated by the train is comparable with the
energy consumption of NO TRACTION LOADS (signaling, switches, etc.) or OTHER LOADS [stations, workshops,
electric vehicle (EV) charge stations, etc.]. Regenerating
energy on trains, together with wayside storage and on-board
train storage, brings notable flexibility to railway system and
supports it in being an important actor in the electricity market
by selling surplus energy to the public grid or by reducing energy purchases following market price variations in the
electricity market.
In order to achieve this goal, the railway energy management system (REM-S) developed in MERLIN and presented

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 1.

SGAM framework [9].

Energy flow of the European country case.

here, integrates on-board, wayside, and coordination services

by developing a system that monitors the energy consumption of different railway subsystems and their components,
and then suggests a smart solution for coordinating optimal
energy usage in the different parts of the system. The contribution of this paper consists in the REM-S architecture, and
in the demonstration that SG concept and the SG architecture
model (SGAM) tools and framework are applicable to railway
systems.
REM-S implements two automation architecture standpoints: 1) centralized; and 2) decentralized. According to
railway system specifications there is possibility to partition
the system to local areas and also there is possibility to
define local or global targets for system optimization. These
two main factors along with some other factors such as
level of system complexity, size of the system, information
and communication technology (ICT) structure and dependability of different system layers influenced the choice of
a hybrid centralizeddecentralized concept for REM-S. In the
hybrid centralizeddecentralized REM-S architecture, while
the global EMS is executed in control center considering the
whole railway network for the following day, the local EMS
will be done in local subnetworks during every 15 min.
The existing SG standards, communication protocols, and
ICT technologies are suitable for designing centralized
decentralized automation architecture. Hence, the design of
the architecture presented here is based on the representation of the railway distribution system as an SG. Besides, it
accommodates different time horizons. With reference to the
latter feature, in [8], the model for data management in control center of SG is studied at three time window modes. This
architecture must be able to deal with different stakeholders,
applications, and networks, and it must be interoperable with
the public grid and energy markets. The development of this
architecture requires harmonization of the standards, protocols, and data models of different domains. Furthermore, the

communication requirements for the ICT infrastructure and

new business objectives must be defined. To this aim, the
SGAM framework [9] was applied as common language.
The SGAM originally developed in support of the SG
standardization process, can be used as aid in designing SG
architectures in a structured manner according to its five interoperable layers (business, function, information, communication, and component), zones and domains [9]. Fig. 2 illustrates
the SGAM layers, zones, and domains.
In this paper, after clarifying the REM-S objectives and concept, relevant use cases are defined [10], [11] and analyzed.
This phase yields the definition of the architecture for the
function layer and business layer. Then the development
of component layer, information layer, and communication
layer is shown together with the standardization gap analysis
for harmonization of SG and railway communication standards. Eventually, some key performance indicators (KPIs)
for REM-S architecture verification are presented and
discussed.
II. REM-S AUTOMATION C ONCEPT
The objectives of REM-S are defined as follows.
1) Optimize energy consumption in operating the railway
system while ensuring the fulfillment of the applicable
performance requirements.
2) Optimize power demand of operating the railway system ensuring the fulfillment of the applicable performance requirements. The reduction of power demand,
and especially of power peaks, can free the electricity
network capacity which has a direct effect on investment strategies for network development; also, it may
reduce the global energy bill and limit or avoid financial
penalties.
3) Optimize costs relevant to energy consumption needed
to operate the railway system while ensuring the fulfillment of the applicable performance requirements. The
energy costs can be lowered through a more rational
purchasing strategy, for example buying energy at a

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KHAYYAM et al.: REM-S: CENTRALIZEDDECENTRALIZED AUTOMATION ARCHITECTURE

low price (during off-peak hours), storing it and using it

when the price is higher (peak hours). By this approach
(that is the target of cost optimization in REM-S); a cost
reduction can be achieved even without reducing the
total energy consumption.
The consumption optimization is driven by the idea that
energy regenerated or spared by some actors in the railway
system can be distributed to other actors thus leading to a net
decrease in the energy demand to the public grid.
Because of the distributed nature of the railway system,
the system size, complexity, and uncertainties, as well as the
dynamic and moving nature of the loads, the energy management must be based on dividing the system into different
parts (subnetworks), and must be implemented in a hybrid
centralizeddecentralized way.
In the proposed automation architecture, each subnetwork
is in contact with the control center and through it with the
electricity market via one intelligent interface substation. The
subnetworks receive the global optimization plan from the control center and implement it locally in their own area, locally
accommodating unanticipated mismatches. Each subnetwork
is in contact with neighboring subnetworks, in order to coordinate and resolve its border area issues about energy and
power optimization. Multiagent systems (MAS) technology is
employed for developing automation and control system in
subnetworks [12]. Each subnetwork consists of the following
active entities.
1) An intelligent substation (ISST) in communication with
all energy related components within the subnetwork,
to send energy consumption/generation commands or
suggestions to them. Each energy related component
equipped with an intelligent entity, called agent, and
has the ability to communicate and the intelligence to
make decisions whether to follow the commands or suggestions coming from ISST. ISST is the subnetwork
manager and acts as main agent in its own area.
2) Several reversible substations (RSST) and nonreversible
substations (SST) connected to public grid as fixed
agents in negotiation with the main agent of the
subnetwork.
3) Wayside energy storage systems (ESSs) considered as
fixed agents.
4) DERs: Renewable sources which belong to the railway system and are located in subnetwork area are
considered as fixed agents as well.
5) Dynamic On-Board Energy Managers (DOEMs)
Installed on the Trains: They are responsible for energy
management inside the train and are in contact with
subnetworks ISST to follow its recommendations.
This actor is a moving agent which passes through
subnetworks and is in contact with main agent of each
subnetwork.
6) External Consumers (ECs): Workshops, stations, or
any other loads such as EV charging stations
inside the railway system which are fixed agents in
developed MAS.
Given that the generic load railway system interacts
with the larger power system (public grid) and its market

Fig. 3.

REM-S automation architecture concept.

(electricity market), it makes sense to adopt a similar

time structure for the optimization, yielding three operational modes.
1) Day Ahead Optimization (DAO): Calculates the optimum behavior of the network, including power profiles,
energy and power purchase, power sale, and so on, for
the next day time horizon (24 h).
2) Minutes Ahead Optimization (MAO): Locally predicts
and optimizes the following 15 min of subnetwork
status. Following the DAO profile, MAO covers the
interaction with all subnetwork agents, considering
power restrictions in the subnetwork as well as the
surpluses and needs of the adjacent subnetworks and
according to them suggests actions to subnetwork agents
such as SSTs, RSSTs, DERs, ESSs, or DOEMs of the
trains passing through the subnetwork in the next 15 min
time step.
3) Real-Time Operation (RTO): Fulfills the calculated
15 min MAO profiles for the subnetwork, taking into
account the real-time status and behavior of all the
components of the subnetwork.
Fig. 3 depicts the hybrid centralizeddecentralized concept
with the three operational modes related to time and location.
In this architecture, by DAO a global EMS runs for the whole
railway network (limited to one IM domain) yielding energy,
power, and cost optimization with a top-bottom approach
based on train timetables and power profiles, DERs generation and ECs power demand. In minutes ahead time slices,
a local EMS is executing in the area of each subnetwork with
the target of following the global EMS plan and optimizing
power profiles locally. The local EMS is done by coordinating
resources to address fast, unanticipated occurrences, such as
some regenerated energy from the passing train, surplus energy
stored in ESSs or requests for more energy for a train which is
delayed. This level of optimization is the link between centralized EMS and the RTO in all decentralized subnetwork agents.
Solving the optimization problem for all short-term flexibilities
in the massive railway system is unfeasible, while by applying the decentralized automation architecture with subnetwork
agents provided for local EMS, the short-term (minutes ahead)
optimization is achievable.

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Fig. 4.

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MAO UML (a) use case diagram and (b) sequence diagram.

DAO and MAO require power flow calculation. Power

flow runs in order to calculate the power demand at each
point of common coupling (PCC). Regarding to massive size
of the railway network, the moving nature of most of the
loads (trains) at DAO, it is critical to use a simple model of the
electrical network. In our electrical network model, the substations (ISST, RSST, and SST) are modeled as ideal voltage
sources in series with equivalent impedance. In this model, the
impedance of the overhead line and catenary are considered in
series and are modeled by one series impedance representing
the feeding section. The line is modeled as a  line model.
The loads, except the trains, in this representation are modeled as constant power loads. Trains are modeled in power flow
calculations as current sources. The required information for
modeling a train as a moving load consists of its power profile
and its position, which are assumed as input data. The effect
of train displacement on the electrical model of distribution
system is represented by changing the impedance of feeding
sections to correspond to the distance of train to PCCs. In
MAO, since the power flow should run in restricted area and
only for 15 min, the detail electrical network model is used
by railway electrical network simulator.
III. REM-S A NALYSIS P HASE
A. Use Case Analysis
The starting point for mapping REM-S concept to SG
reference architecture is the use case analysis. Three operational modes defined in the architecture concept based on
different level of optimization and three time scales are considered as use case clusters. Based on the defined operation
of each cluster, high-level use cases (HLUC) were identified

for each of them. The HLUCs are general actions or compliance functionality which are characterized as generic, i.e., as
describing a general concept and not a specific outcome.
The HLUCs defined for executing day ahead operation are:
1) energy trading; 2) billing; and 3) global optimization.
The main objective of energy trading is to buy and sell the
energy at the best price for the whole railway network located
in the domain of each IM. The billing calculates the real cost
of the consumed energy and the optimization goal is to optimize the operational cost and energy/power consumption of
the whole network during next day. This is the high-level
optimization which is done centrally.
The minutes ahead HLUC is the local optimization which
calculates the optimum 15 min ahead power profile taking into
account the reference 24 h power profile. This optimization is
done locally in each subnetwork.
The real-time HLUCs comprises real-time data acquisition, estimation, operation control, and actions implementation
dealing with local subnetwork agents.
The real-time data acquisition collects the real-time status of each subnetwork agent. The estimation aggregates the
prediction of consumption/generation of each agent in the
next 15 min, which is needed for MAO. The operation control generates operational suggestions for each agent. Actions
implementation get operational suggestions from the operation
control, calculates the optimum way (i.e., real-time actions) to
fulfill the suggestions by each agent. The optimization procedures in all HLUCs are executed using the following set of
hard constraints.
1) Each train should reach its destination within a maximum window of acceptable delay agreed with the
railway undertaking (RU).

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KHAYYAM et al.: REM-S: CENTRALIZEDDECENTRALIZED AUTOMATION ARCHITECTURE

2) Maximum utilization of internal energy sources

(e.g., renewables installed within the infrastructure) is
achieved.
3) Limits of use of the infrastructure (e.g., maximum power
of a given SST).
The unified modeling language (UML) use case diagrams,
based on the use case clusters and HLUCs definitions are
modeled in the enterprise architect (EA). The use case steps
and information exchange between HLUCs and other actors
for supporting REM-S objectives have been analyzed and are
modeled in EA as UML sequence diagrams. Fig. 4 displays
the UML use case diagram and sequence diagram of MAO as
a sample.

TABLE I
U SE C ASE C LUSTER , HLUC, AND P RIMARY U SE C ASE R ELATION

B. Function Layer
Based on the HLUCs, the primary functions are identified
to develop the SGAM function layer. The primary functions
are described in detail with specific information objects as
input and output for implementing use case objectives [9].
The primary functions are detailed enough to be mapped onto
a specific architecture. Table I shows the relation between
use case clusters, HLUCs, and primary functions, which are
modeled in the function layer of SGAM.
In the market zone, the energy trading and energy trading
estimation functions are defined to connect the railway network to the public grid electricity market. These functions are
in contact with the electricity market in order to forecast the
next days energy price and to buy/sell energy at the best price
from/to the electricity market. For doing this, energy trading
knows about the energy required by each connection point to
public grid, the estimated behavior of the market, the constraints from long-term contracts, the bidding strategies, the
electricity open sessions, and all related costs.
In the enterprise zone, the billing function is considered.
Since the gathered data in REM-S is integrated from
on-board, wayside, and coordination services, the billing
function can calculate the energy consumption for different
railway subsystems and their components, and can consequently send its results to the public grid related actors (such
as utilities or energy suppliers) and railway related actors
(IM and RU).
In the operation zone, several functions are defined for day
ahead operation, minutes ahead operation, and RTO modes.
For DAO, the power consumption/generation forecast of different trains, ECs, DERs, or any other loads will be gathered
from RU and IM and integrated in the control center of
REM-S. Based on these forecasts, the global optimization will
prepare next days power consumption/generation schedules
of trains, ECs and DERs. The global EMS is supported by
functions like audit, report, or mapping scheduling in this
zone as well. The Deviation alert_MAO function is defined
for triggering DAO whenever a major disruption that cannot
be resolved within the MAO occurs. In minutes ahead operation, the local optimization function calculates the optimum
15 min power profile for the subnetwork according to the daily
plan received from control center. These optimum profiles are
produced using the local intelligence of each subnetwork. This
function, along with the power mismatch calculation and the

negotiation function, resolves the local lack of power with

local savings or the surpluses of the neighborhood subnetworks and vice versa. The other functionalities defined for
supporting local EMS in the minutes ahead time frame are
profile slicing, supervision, and deviation alert. The Deviation
alert_RTO relaunch MAO functions in the case of a major disruption that cannot be resolved within the RTO occurs. In real
time, the control function compares the profile calculated by
the MAO and the real-time status and makes the suggestions
for each agent in order to resolve the deviations.
The station zone is the real-aggregation level for field level
data [9], so aggregation of next 15 min forecasted situation
of agents is prepared here. Furthermore in this zone, some
real-time actions are produced in each agent based on control
commands coming from local intelligence.
In the field zone, the real-time data acquisition function
acquires the real-time status of the trains, DERs, ESS, ECs,
SSTs, and RSSTs and the consumption measuring function
reads the consumption of each PCC, train, and EC and stores
it in order to calculate the total consumption. The main point
of REM-S real-time data acquisition function or consumption
measuring or estimation function is that they are integrating the data of different agents (DER, ESS, RSST, SST, and
DOEM) in local ISST. These data are used in ISST for local
EMS and the required integrated data is sent to control center
for global EMS. In this paper, the function layer modeling REM-S was done through the SGAM toolbox EA [13].
Fig. 5 displays the function layer of all DAO, MAO, and RTO
integrated in one SGAM plane.
C. Business Layer
The business layer indicates which organizations and actors
should participate in pursuing the business objectives (optimizing energy consumption, power demand, and cost). Also
the business processes that support the business objectives and

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The estimated price is used as initial energy price in

optimization procedure.
2) For each hour, the REM-S determines the following.
a) What amount of energy is purchased by means of
the long-term agreements.
b) What amount of the energy has to be offered in
each session of the spot market.
3) For each hour covered by each session, the REM-S splits
the energy into blocks of likelihood and assigns them
a price, according to the bidding strategy and to the
contractual agreements available. The result is called the
purchase/sale bid for each market session, which has to
be sent to the EMO.
When a major variation occurs in the planned operation, the
following decisions are taken:
1) determining which sessions of the spot markets can be
used to sell/buy the electricity depending on the hour at
which the variation occurs;
2) repeating the same process followed in the day time
horizon, but restricted to the actual time horizon.
And, once the above tasks are done, the estimated prices
have to be updated.
IV. REM-S A RCHITECTURE

Fig. 5.

DAO, MAO, and RTO function layer in SGAM plane.

related functions are mentioned. The regulatory constraints are

taken into account in this layer.
The REM-S business functions are energy trading estimation and energy trading. The energy trading estimation
function is supported by three processes: 1) market price estimation; 2) optimization of energy supply; and 3) calculation
of the actual price of energy. The energy trading function
is supported by five processes: 1) market price estimation;
2) optimization of energy supply; 3) calculation of the actual
price of energy; 4) detection of electricity market operator (EMO) open sessions; and 5) construction of the bids.
Electricity buyer decision maker (EBDM) is the REM-S actor
responsible for executing energy trading estimation and energy
trading business functions.
These two functions are responsible to take the following
decisions in the 12 days horizon.
1) In order to provide the right financial signals to the
REM-S, an estimated price of the energy must be calculated as the weighted mean of: a) the price of the
energy bought/sold by means of contracts and b) the
price of the energy bought/sold in each session of the
electricity markets. The latter is known only after the
matching procedure is completed and the prices are
published by the EMO. While these prices are not yet
available, a reasonable estimation is calculated by energy
trading estimation function according to historical data.

The automation concept, functionalities, and business processes of REM-S are defined in the previous section. In this
section, the design of component layer, information layer, and
communication layer essential to this automation concept is
introduced. By identifying these latter three layers, the defined
functionalities are mapped to the physical architecture [9].
A. Component Layer
The new functionalities defined for managing energy in
railway operation, should be executed by some components.
The component layer identifies the components, in the form
of system, hardware, software, or interface, to implement the
intended functionalities, yielding the physical distribution of
all participating components in REM-S architecture.
The EBDM, which is the business actor of REM-S interfacing with the electricity market, should be supported by
marketplace system and energy trading software.
The billing function needs billing software to calculate
the energy consumption of different components which are
integrated from different railway subsystems in REM-S.
For global EMS, the EMS/supervisory control and
data acquisition (SCADA) system is required in order to support operational activities for dispatching energy at higher
level of system in control center. Global optimization software (GOS) supports intelligent functions of REM-S in the
control center and makes an optimum plan for the next day. It
must have an RU server, an IM server and a DER, EMS,
and VPP system to be responsible for gathering the next
day forecasting of timetables, power demands and energy
generation.
For local EMS, the distribution management system (DMS)/SCADA supports all operation activities at
each subnetwork to dispatch energy internally or to the

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neighbor subnetwork. The DMS hosts the ISST of each

subnetwork. It takes care of aggregating forecasted profiles
received from all agents (DER controllers, DOEMs, and
ECs). The controlling suggestions are followed by this actor
in ISST. Local optimization software (LOS) located at ISST
supports intelligent functions of REM-S in each subnetwork
area and makes an optimum plan for next 15 min.
Local SCADA is located at SSTs or RSSTs to implement
the actions receiving from ISST. DER controller, intelligent
electronic device, and DOEM have the same role in DERs,
EC components or ESSs, and trains.
Humanmachine interface can be used in control center,
ISST, or other SSTs to monitor the energy flow and prepare
an interface for manual applications. The RTU is the interface
object of the control center and ISST components.
The router at control center is needed to realize communication between the different components (marketplace system,
EMS/SCADA, GOS, etc.) and the subnetworks, public grid,
and electricity market. In ISST, it is used to communicate
to neighborhood subnetworks and realize communication for
data acquisition and sending and receiving control commands.
The measuring instrument device meter measures the energy
consumption (they are already installed in most of railway
system components) and sends them to meter data concentrator (MDC). MDC performs some preliminary analysis of data,
such as bad data detection and elimination, and then sends
data to meter data management system (MDMS) to gather
all data required to calculate and report necessary information (such as energy bill). Data storage is needed to save the
measured data, optimization results, and all other information
which is useful for reporting, supervision, etc.
All new components proposed for REM-S are located
on SGAM plane and modeled with SGAM toolbox [13].
Fig. 6 shows these components in SGAM plane.
B. Information Layer
Based on the defined components and their functionalities,
the information exchange is detailed here. It is modeled with
UML sequence diagrams with EA to show the chronological
sequence of information exchange. The information objects
and data models are identified in order to allow an interoperable information exchange via communication means between
components or actors [9].
For high-level data (object oriented) exchange mechanism, several middleware were analyzed yielding SOAP and
common object request broker architecture as candidates,
consistent with InteGRail project.
In REM-S, in some cases the information is exchanged
between two actors, in other cases it takes place under the
umbrella of a unique actor. In the first case, there is a clear
need for standardization (communication and application profiles), while in the second case the standard could remain
as a recommendation. For interoperability, the following
data must be standardized.
1) Track Data: A centralized track data server (TDS) distributes the track information (the information exchange
through the rail line) to the RUs using a standardized
format.

Fig. 6.

DAO, MAO, and RTO component layer in SGAM plane.

2) Timetable Data: Timetable data to the RUs, related

modifications originating from the traffic management
system (TMS) in real time (i.e., new arrival or departure
times, or passing time at waypoints).
3) Forecasted Trains Power Profile: Each RU must inform
the GOS about the forecasted energy consumption of the
following day.
4) Real-Time Data From DOEM, ESS, ECs, DERs, and
SST/RSSTs: The exchanged data format between LOS
and GOS and the end components is also a subject
of standardization. While local communication at LOS
level comes from the electricity/power field, new REM-S
functions need additional standardized data models.
5) Estimation for MAO From DOEMs: A consumption profile for the minutes ahead calculated by train and sent
to the LOS.
6) Suggestions From Control to DOEMs: LOS operational suggestions and orders (e.g., temporary power
restrictions, new arrival times, etc.) to all train
mounted DOEM.
Having in mind that Web services (SOAP) are chosen as
the most appropriate way for transferring data and calling
function remotely, it makes sense to use extensible markup
language (XML) to define the proposed standard format of
the aforementioned data types.
In that sense, the adoption of railway modeling language (RailML),1 which is a XML-based solution for simplified data exchange between railway applications, is proposed
here. Although RailML covers many aspects of the railways
1 http://www.railml.org/

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Fig. 7.

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Detailed REM-S communication layer.

(e.g., infrastructure, vehicles, etc.), the novelty of the REM-S

concepts requires the extension of its schemas with new tags.
The different schemas of this language are fit for different railway data. The main data structures defined by RailML are as
follows:
1) timetable that contain schedules;
2) infrastructure that contains the information about the
route, the line characteristics, stations, etc;
3) rolling stock that contains the rolling stock
characteristics.
C. Communication Layer
For REM-S communication layer, mostly the existing communication profiles (represented as IEC, European Committee
for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), or W3 standards) are used in both the energy and railway fields, although
in some cases new profiles are needed to cover some functionalities.
Each link is analyzed ensuring interoperability to determine
whether the profiles require standardization or a recommendation is enough. Fig. 7 proposes the detailed architecture of
the communication layer. The REM-S communication layer is
based on four main standard families.
1) IEC 61375 (Train Communication Network): In case of
REM-S, four parts are relevant: a) 61375-3-4 [Ethernet
consist network (ECN)] and b) 61375-2-3,4,6 (communication and application profiles and train to ground
communication).
2) IEC 60870-5: Two relevant parts are 60870-5-101 (transmission protocols, companion standards especially for
basic telecontrol tasks) and 60870-5-104 (transmission
protocols, network access).
3) IEC 61850: The REM-S related parts of this standard
is IEC 61850-6 (configuration language), IEC 61850-7
(basic communication structure for substation and feeder
equipment), and 61850-8 (specific communication service mapping).
4) Simple object access protocol (SOAP).

The REM-S communication layer comprises different

networks.
1) The train on-board network (green dotted box in
Fig. 6) follows the IEC 61375 Standard series. In particular, REM-S relies on this communication for the new
buses based on ECN, as these technologies provide great
advantages in terms of flexibility, modularity, cost effectiveness, and reusability. Train subsystems, including the
DOEM, are connected to it.
2) The IM intranet comprises all components and servers
required to manage the rail network. The relevant actors
connected to this intranet are: a) TDS; b) the DER,
EDS, and VPP system (DER EVS); c) the GOS; and
d) a number of LOS units.
3) The RU intranet includes several applications like ticketing, train maintenance, and others. Amongst them, the
energy forecaster system is a new component brought
by REM-S.
4) The LOS intranet refers to the local area network
devoted to controlling the power system around an
electrical SST. Different components are connected to
this network for data exchange: meters, DER, DMS, etc.
It provides the pathway to distribute the final order to the
controlled electrical subsystems and to collect low-level
electrical parameters.
In the REM-S communication layer, several ways are
defined for exchanging data between above four internal
networks. The train to ground communication links train
onboard network and the IM intranet. It is based on the
IEC 61375-2-6 Standard which contemplates a multitechnology (GPRS, 3G, long-term evolution, WiFi, etc.) communication with transparent handovers. In Fig. 7, both data exchange
through WiFi hotspots (e.g., at depot, stations, etc.) and
through the mobile telephony network are represented.
According to the architecture defined in IEC 61375-2-6 some
components like the domain name system server and the
authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server are
needed.

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KHAYYAM et al.: REM-S: CENTRALIZEDDECENTRALIZED AUTOMATION ARCHITECTURE

The Internet is used to interface third parties from the IM

intranet. In particular, communication from and to the RUs and
the electricity market is realized through this common used
network. Obviously security measures should be deployed to
avoid intrusions (e.g., firewalls, virtual private network, etc.),
where the AAA server can play an important role. When the
communication uses the telephony network the Internet also
serves as the carrier for the exchanged information.
As the many LOS could be placed in remote areas, different means to provide communication to the IM network must
be provided. Of course, it may happen that the IM physical
network is deployed as far as the LOS facilities, but if it were
not the case, the telephony network should be used. When
the mobile telephony network is used, the same infrastructure
deployed for the train to ground communication can be reused,
as shown in Fig. 7.
Currently, the most commonly adopted procedure for
informing the train driver about delays and arrival times, and
in general for the communication between the TMS and the
driver is the mobile phone. In this case, the driver has to
manually update the DOEM using the data manager interface.
V. E VALUATION OF A RCHITECTURE M ODEL
The EA UML tool, KPI evaluation, and analysis of abnormal conditions are applied for assessing the architecture.
EA is used to check the interoperability of the layer connections between components and functions, communication
protocols, data models, and the feasibility of all use cases,
which confirms whether or not the architecture supports all
the use cases.
Some KPIs can be defined for the REM-S architecture, to
conceptually address the following points.
A. Characterization of Key Features
Quantifiable metrics are defined to compare key features of
REM-S architecture to other architectures [14].
1) Ratio Between Number of Actors Shared Between Use
Cases and Total Number of Actors: This ratio is intended to
represent the effort of synthesis of actors. That means if the
actors work separately, the amount of their analysis effort and
its complexity will decrease. There are six business actors in
three different use cases (IM, railway operator, transmission
system operator/distribution system operator, EMO, energy
supplier, and grid owner). Because four of them (IM, railway
operator, energy supplier, and grid owner) are shared in the use
case, the ratio is 67%. For the centralized architecture, shared
use cases would be similar, so the ratio remains 67%. This
ratio for SGAM actors (the new actors defined particularly
for REM-S) becomes 0% for REM-S architecture, because no
shared actors are defined among the use cases. This ratio for
the centralized architecture will be 20%. The SGAM actors
are forecast provider, GOS, EBDM, LOS, and DMS. In case
of the centralized architecture, LOS will be the shared actor.
2) Ratio Between Number of New Actors and Total Number
of Actors: This ratio represents the innovation brought by
the new architecture. There are six business actors which are
the stakeholders of REM-S and five new actors as SGAM

actors. So, 45% of actors are new actors defined particularly

for REM-S.
3) Integration of Existing Standards: Some standard gap
or some standard modification can emerge in the proposed
architecture which is described in Section IV-C.
4) Hierarchical Level of the Architecture: For this index,
we should specify how many nodes or how much nominal
power is managed from control center or from subnetworks.
For example, one of our scenarios (the line between Paris and
Lyon) with 389 km railway is divided to five subnetworks.
There are 384 trains passing this line daily. Hence, each subnetwork manager agent is dealing with 389 moving loads and
23 EC and 1 or 2 ESS. In this scenario, the control center
is only in contact with five subnetwork managers located in
five ISSTs.
B. Architecture Robustness to Loss of Communication,
Communication Delay, and Failure of
Hardware and Software
Since in the hybrid architecture the control nodes (subnetwork manager as ISST) are significantly closer to the
loads (train, EC, etc.), the communication delays and loss of
data will decrease, while in the centralized architecture with
large data loads over long distances between control nodes
and loads, channel congestion is more likely to happen and
the number of bottlenecks may rapidly increase, leading to
a lower level of architecture robustness. On the other hand
by defining the functions implemented in each device based
on the SGAM framework in EA, the effect of failure of such
devices is studied. The architecture passes consistency check
to ensure reliability by defining all types of information objects
needed for supporting functions in degraded operation scenarios along with necessary incremental reinforcements of
a proposed infrastructure.
C. Increase in Production or Consumption
Hosting Capacity
The hosting capacity is defined as the maximum amount of
new production (e.g., new DERs in case of REM-S) or consumption (e.g., new trains or new ECs in case of REM-S)
that can be connected without endangering the reliability
or quality for other customers [15]. Different performance
indices, that are mostly related to power quality indices, can
be selected for evaluating the hosting capacity of the network.
As an example, for phenomena like network overloading by
wind power penetration, a performance index like maximum
hourly value of current through related transformer or the
maximum power flow of network [15] can be considered. In
REM-S architecture, these performance indices are defined
as objective functions in DAO and MAO. In both optimization procedures, we consider hourly and real-time power
demand optimization as one of the main goals and the voltage
and current standard ranges as hard constraints on the optimization procedure; therefore the optimal solution will take
care of phenomena such as overload, overvoltage, or under
voltage.

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10

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D. Cost of Architecture
The architecture cost is a summation of deployment cost
and operation cost [16]. In this formulation, the installation
cost is not considered as a deployment cost and it is assumed
that the required hardware and software devices are existing
and that we want to check the difference between applying different energy management architectures to the system
under consideration. Therefore, the deployment cost consists of the costs of deploying data storage, processing, and
communication capacity
CD = CS + CC + CP .

(1)

Here CD is the deployment cost, CS is the storage cost;

CP is the cost of processing units and CC is the cost of
transceivers/receivers [16].
The operation cost is defined as the amount of energy
consumed in a fixed time period (e.g., one month)
CO = Etotal fE .

(2)

Here, Etotal is the average energy required by all nodes

for operating during the time interval and fE is the price of
energy [16].
1) Storage Cost Calculation: The cost of storing data at
node k is calculated as follows:
CS (k) = Sk fS (Sk ).

(3)

Here fS models the price of storage and Sk is the total

amount of storage capacity, given by
Sk = T

lm
.

(4)

Here T is the time duration, is the sampling interval,

and lm shows length of message [16]. The cost storage for
all nodes can be calculated by (4). This means that to calculate the storage cost of whole architecture we should add the
cost of the field zone nodes (meters), station zone nodes (subnetwork nodes), and operation zone nodes (control center).
Equation (4) shows that the storage cost has a direct relation to distance; this results more expensive storage cost in
the centralized architecture than in the hybrid architecture due
to the greater distance between field zone nodes and control
center. On the other hand, if we consider N as the number of
subnetworks and M as the number of nodes in the field zone,
N should be much smaller than M(N << M); therefore adding
N nodes for developing the hybrid architecture has no significant effect on the cost of whole architecture. All in all, as it
is also proved by simulation in [15], the storage cost in the
centralized architecture is more expensive than in the hybrid
architecture.
2) Communication Cost Calculation: The communication
cost for each node is calculated as follows:
CC ( j) = Tj fC (Tj ).

(5)

Here fc models the price of bandwidth and Tj is

data rate needed to transmit data from one node the other

node (in REM-S, from field nodes to control center through

subnetwork nodes in station zone). Tj is calculated as
FS
8lm
.
(6)
FS
t
Here t is the time period for transmitting information form
a field zone node to a station zone node and lm shows the
length of the message [16]. For calculating the total communication cost for the whole architecture it is necessary to
calculate both cost of transmitting data from field zone nodes
to station zone nodes and also from there to the operation
zone node (control center). Hence, we can briefly formulate
this relation as


CC (i) +
CC ( j).
(7)
CC =

Tj =

iN

jM

According to (6) and (7), since the cost scales directly

with the length of the message (which is significantly longer
in centralized architecture), and as N, the number of subnetworks in the station zone, is much smaller than M, the
number of nodes at field zone, (N << M), the communication cost in the hybrid architecture is significantly less than
in centralized architecture. The conclusion is in line with the
pilot experiment [15] on the comparison of the communication
bandwidth for different architectures.
3) Processing Cost Calculation: The processing cost at
node k for each query is calculated as
CP (k) = nm n fp (k).

(8)

Here nm is number of messages, n is the number of operations required for each query and fp (k) is the function that
models the processing price [16]. According to [16] simulation results, the processing operations are significantly fewer
in hybrid architecture compared to centralized architecture.
This difference can be interpreted by the difference between
distributing the process effort between the field, station and
operation zone nodes compared to doing most of the processes
centrally in operation zone.
4) Total Energy Cost Calculation: The energy required at
each node for operation is formulated by
jk

Ej = EC
jk

+ Er/w + Epj .

(9)

i , and E are formulated below

The EC , Er/w
p
jk

EC

j
Er/w
Epj

jk jk
= esc
lsc + ercjk lrcjk

=
=

erj lrj + ewj lwj

epj npj .
jk

(10)
(11)
(12)

In the formulation above: EC is the energy required to

send/receive information between j and k nodes according
jk
jk
j
to the length of transmitted message (lsc or lrc ), Er/w
is the required energy for reading or writing information
from/to storage according to the length of the message that
j
j
j
has been read/written (lr or lw ), Ep is the energy consumption of processing and is calculated by the energy required
j
for processing a byte of information (ep ) and the number of
j
processed bytes (np ) [16].

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KHAYYAM et al.: REM-S: CENTRALIZEDDECENTRALIZED AUTOMATION ARCHITECTURE

The total energy cost is calculated by summing the energy

required for all nodes from the field zone to the operation zone.
It can be seen from (10)(12) that the consumed energy has
a direct relation to the message length and to the number of
processed bytes and, because N << M, the cost of energy in
the centralized architecture is much bigger than in the hybrid
architecture. This conclusion is illustrated by simulation results
in [16] as well.
All in all, it can be concluded that in the calculation of
architecture cost, the larger the number of nodes in the field
zone the more suitable is the hybrid architecture compared to
the centralized architecture.
E. Scalability
In this section, another performance metric is defined to
evaluate the hybrid architecture communication cost according
to traffic rate, bandwidth size, number of nodes, and distance
between nodes, showing how the scalability of architecture
would be improved by switching from a centralized architecture to hybrid architecture. The total cost of communication
in a traditional centralized architecture is calculated as in (13),
and in hybrid architecture as
+ F0
TotalCostC = DM



2
3

TotalCostH = DM
D

+ F
D

2
3

(13)

 13
+ F
D

(14)

is the
where is the average traffic rate on field zone nodes, D
average distance between field zone nodes and the subnetwork
manager, M is the total number of nodes in the field zone, is
unit cost of bandwidth distance product, is the bandwidth
needed for the information exchanged between a distributed
server and a centralized server, Fj is the cost of deploying
MDMS at location j and F is the average deployment cost of
distributed MDMS [17].
Equation (13) shows that the total cost in centralized architecture scales linearly with the number of nodes, the average
data generation rate of loads, and the average distance between
the loads and control center. In (14), the cost scales as x2/3
with the similar parameters. These two equations show that
by increasing the traffic rate to nodes or the number of nodes,
the communication cost increases more rapidly in the centralized architecture compared to the hybrid architecture, which
implies that the hybrid architecture is more scalable than the
centralized architecture.
F. Analysis of Abnormal Conditions
The main structure of REM-S architecture is developed
based on normal operation condition and then it is modified to
ensure that it can support the following abnormal conditions.
1) The SST or energy storage fails.
2) A delayed train tries to catch up on its timetable.
3) Communication with some agents is down.
4) Temporary or Permanent Timetable is updated.
5) Temporary or Permanent speed limits are updated.
6) DERs generate more or less energy than forecasted.

11

VI. C ONCLUSION
The new REM-S architecture is presented. Its development
demonstrates achievements in three main domains: the mapping of the railway system onto the SG concept, the first step in
the direction of harmonization of standards of SG and railway
systems in the area of energy management, and the mapping
and development of the new architecture for railway systems
onto the reference architecture of the SG.
The SG concepts in railway systems span the centralized
decentralized automation architecture, the adoption of different
time horizons (day ahead, minutes ahead, and real time) and
the creation of flexibility with DOEM, DER, EC, and ESS.
The adoption of the SGAM framework yields the interoperability of different layers and the interoperability with the
rest of the SG system.
The standardization analysis identifies which railway or SG
standards are applicable in REM-S and which parts need
extension. In support of this, the authors plan to submit
the REM-S use cases to CEN-CENELEC-ETSI and upload
them in the use case management repository. Some recommendations are identified for TECREC especially in the field
of rolling stock with the ground communication and energy
related parts of data modeling.
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[3] Railway Handbook: Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions, Int.
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[5] Z. Zhao, W. C. Lee, Y. Shin, and K. Song, An optimal power
scheduling method for demand response in home energy management system, IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 13911400,
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[6] G. T. Costanzo, G. Zhu, M. F. Anjos, and G. Savard, A system
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[7] S. Salina, M. Li, P. Li, and Y. Fu, Dynamic energy management for
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[8] J. Liu, X. Li, D. Liu, H. Liu, and P. Mao, Study on data management of fundamental model in control center for smart grid operation,
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[9] CEN-CENELEC-ETSI: Smart Grid Reference Architecture, ETSI
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[10] CEN-CENELEC-ETSI: Smart Grid First Set of Standards, ETSI
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[11] CEN-CENELEC-ETSI: Smart Grid Use Case Management Process,
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[12] S. D. J. McArthur et al., Multi-agent systems for power engineering applicationsPart I: Concepts, approaches, and technical challenges, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 17431752,
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12

[16] A. U. N. S. Narashiman, M. Vasirani, R. V. Prasad, and K. Aberer,

A cost-benefit analysis of data processing architectures for the smart
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Sep. 2012.

Sara Khayyam (S14) received the Masters degree

in electrical engineering from the Iran University of
Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2007. She
is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with RWTH
Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
She was a Research Assistant in the field of
distribution networks design with Niroo Research
Institute, Tehran, for five years. Since 2012, she
has been a Research Associate with the Institute
for Automation of Complex Power Systems, E.ON
Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen University.
Her current research interests include smart grids and energy management
systems.

Ferdinanda Ponci (M00SM08) received the

M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1998
and 2002, respectively.
In 2003, she joined the Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC, USA, as an Assistant Professor
with the Power and Energy Research Group, where
she was tenured and promoted as an Associate
Professor in 2008. In 2009, she joined the Institute
for Automation of Complex Power Systems, E.ON
Research Center, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, where she is
an Professor.

Javier Goikoetxea received the Engineering degree

from the University of Navarre, Pamplona, Spain,
in 1997.
He was with the Department of Research and
Development, CAF Company, Beasain, Spain, where
he was involved in the most relevant technological developments of the company, such as the
Control and Supervision Modular System Train
Control and Monitoring System (COSMOS TCMS),
the Intelligent Tilting Integrated System (TCMS),
and the OARIS high-speed train. He is currently the
Director of Research and Development Projects (at both international and
national levels), and the coordination of technology supporting CAFs Chief
Technology Officer. He was a Technical Coordinator of MERLIN, Brussels,
Belgium. In the last months, he has been deeply involved in the preparation
of the SHIFT2RAIL initiative and he will be the Technical Coordinator of its
lighthouse project ROLL2RAIL, which starts in 2015.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID

Valerio Recagno received the Master degree in

electronics engineering in 1992 and the Ph.D.
degree in transport engineering and economics
from the University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy,
in 1997.
He has experiences as a Consultant and
a University Lecturer. In 2003, he joined
DAppolonia Company, Genoa, where he is currently the Development Manager with the Transport
Engineering Division.
Mr. Recagno has been a member of the
Transportation Energy Committee of the Transportation Research Board of
National Academy, USA, since 2012.

Valeria Bagliano received the Master degree in

computer science engineering from the University
of Genoa, Genoa, Italy, in 2006.
In 2006, she joined DAppolonia Company,
Genoa, where she is currently a Senior Project
Engineer with the Transport Engineering Division.
Since 2011, she has been involved in several projects
related to energy efficiency in the transport sector,
especially in the railway domain.

Antonello Monti (M94SM02) received the M.Sc.

(summa cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy,
in 1989 and 1994, respectively.
He started his career in Ansaldo Industria, Milan,
and then moved to Politecnico di Milano, as an
Assistant Professor in 1995. In 2000, he joined
the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA, as an
Associate and then a Full Professor. Since 2008, he
has been the Director of the Institute for Automation
of Complex Power System, E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen
University, Aachen, Germany. He has authored or co-authored over 200 peerreviewed papers published in international journals and in the proceedings of
international conferences.
Dr. Monti is an Associate Editor of the IEEE S YSTEM J OURNAL.