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Procedia Computer Science 86 (2016) 373 – 376

2016 International Electrical Engineering Congress, iEECON2016, 2-4 March 2016, Chiang Mai,
Thailand

Simulation on Voltage Unbalance Reduction in Railway

Electrification System by Different Special Transformers
Donmanat Santiyanona, Komsan Hongesombutb*, Siwapon Srisonphanc
a,b,c
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University
50 Ngamwongwan Road, Ladyao, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

Abstract

In recent years, electric railway system becomes an efficient mass transportation in large urban areas. A railway electrification
system supplies electric power to railway trains through the transformers. Therefore, the transformer is a key component to help
reduce problems of the unbalance of voltage and current in the power grid. As electric trains have their power delivered on a
single-phase system, the single-phase transformer causes the unbalance of voltage and current in the power system network, with
which the railway electrification system is connected. In order to alleviate these problems, special transformers, i.e. Scott
transformer and Le-Blanc transformer, have been proposed to be used in the railway electrification system. This paper focuses on
developing the special transformer models for using in DIgSILENT PowerFactory software. The developed models have been
verified with a simple train system in order to study the effectiveness of reduction of voltage unbalance factors from the three
types of transformers. In addition, the developed special transformer models can be applied in a large-scale power system
network for power quality problem analysis.
©©2016
2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V.B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of iEECON2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of iEECON2016
Keywords: Le-Blanc Transformer; Railway Electrification System; Scott Transformer; Voltage Unbalance Factor.

1. Introduction

Electric railway system is widely regarded as an effective mass transportation alternative to reduce energy
consumption and emissions in urban areas. As electric trains have their power delivered on a single-phase system

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +66-2797-0999 ; fax: +66-2579-7566

E-mail address: fengksh@ku.ac.th

1877-0509 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of iEECON2016
doi:10.1016/j.procs.2016.05.104
374 Donmanat Santiyanon et al. / Procedia Computer Science 86 (2016) 373 – 376

and the grid power, on the other hand, is delivered on three phase, one single-phase transformer could be connected
to the train system, however, that would cause unbalance in the power supply. Use of electric railway system in
large cities around the world is on the rise. With growing concerns about the power quality impacts of electric
railway system connected to the power grid [1], engineers have tried to use the special transformer as a way to
power single phase electric railways from three-phase utility supplies. Practically, the use of the special transformer
results in improvement of balanced currents on the three-phase side. Among special transformers, Scott and Le-
Blanc transformers are widely used in the railway electrification system. However, studies on the effect of electric
railway system on wide-area power systems using commercial power system analysis software such as DIgSILENT
PowerFactory has not been widely spreading. This paper focuses on developing the special transformer models for
using in DIgSILENT PowerFactory software. The Scott and Le-Blanc transformer models [2]-[4] are developed and
verified on a simple train system in order to study the effectiveness in voltage unbalance reduction on a power
system. Then, correlation analysis is performed to identify the key parameter which affects the performance on
voltage unbalance reduction. It is found in the study results that the voltage unbalance factor (VUF) directly relates
to the maximum of power difference between the phases. Moreover, the developed special transformer models are
useful and can be applied for further studies on the effect of larger railway electrification system network in a large-
scale power system for power quality problem analysis.

2. Scott Transformer Model

Fig. 1(a) shows the model of the Scott transformer in DIgSILENT PowerFactory. The Scott transformer can be
modeled by combination of two single-phase transformers, T1 and T2 as illustrated in Fig. 1(b). The transformer T1
has a 50% tapped winding on its primary side, and a single winding on its secondary side. The teaser transformer T2
has a 86% tapped winding on its primary side and a single winding on its secondary side. Fig. 1(c) shows the
voltage-phasor diagram of Scott transformer.

3. Le-Blanc Transformer Model

Fig. 2(a) shows the model of the Le-Blanc transformer in DIgSILENT PowerFactor. The Le-Blanc transformer
can be modeled by combination of five single-phase transformers with appropriate turn ratios, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1,
C2 as illustrated in Fig. 2(b). Fig. 2(c) shows the voltage-phasor diagram of Le-Blanc transformer.

Fig. 1. (a) Scott transformer model in DIgSILENT PowerFactory, (b) Scott connection scheme,
(c) Voltage-phasor diagram of Scott transformer

4. Study Power System Feeding the Electric Railway System

To demonstrate the voltage unbalance phenomenon, the transformers at each substation shown in Fig. 3(a) can
 Donmanat Santiyanon et al. / Procedia Computer Science 86 (2016) 373 – 376 375

be replaced by single-phase, Scott and La-Blanc transformers. Fig. 3(a) shows the single line diagram of the power
system feeding the electric railway system used in this study. It consists of three substations connected to the
external grid which is modeled as a symmetrical three-phase voltage source. The AC transmission lines is modeled
as a long line. The catenary system is modeled by cascading the Pi section line. The electric trains can be modeled
as the unconstant power loads depending on speed modes and move forward from the first station to the last station.
Fig 3(b) shows flowchart of DPL script which reads the speed profile from Excel file and displays all parameters
after the last train stop running.

Fig. 2. (a) Le-Blanc transformer model in DIgSILENT PowerFactory, (b) Le-Blanc connection scheme,
(c) Voltage phasor diagram of Le-Blanc transformer.

External Grid Train(n)

Pos. 1 No

Switch1 Steady Speed Mode

Substation 1 Define Speed Profile
Pos. 1.1 Yes

Calculate Parameters of Steady

Switch2 Speed Mode
Pos. 2 Read Train Speed from k=k+1
Substation 2 Excel No
Break Mode
Switch3 Yes
Pos. 2.1
Calculate Parameters of Break Mode
Switch4 Calculate TE,Be,Mr
Substation 3 Pos. 3
Pos. 3.1 No Total Position
Switch5 No
Yes
Pos. 4 Accelerate Mode
Display all parameters
Pos. 4.1 Yes

Calculate Parameters of Accelerate

Train mode END

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. (a) Single line diagram of the study power system, (b) Flowchart of DPL script of train running

5. Simulation Results

The single line diagram in Fig. 3(a) is used for feeding the electric railway system with different types of
transformers. By using the same model of electric trains, the voltage unbalance factors are calculated for three cases:
(1) single phase transformer; (2) Scott transformer; (3) and Le-Blanc transformer. Fig. 4(a) to Fig. 4(c) show the
%VUF on grid side versus time graphs in case of single phase transformer, Scott transformer and Le-Blanc
transformer, respectively. It can be found from Fig. 4(a) to Fig. 4(c) that Scott and Le-Blanc transformers provide
376 Donmanat Santiyanon et al. / Procedia Computer Science 86 (2016) 373 – 376

better %VUF. The single-phase connection scheme has larger %VUF, hence, poor power quality. The correlation
analysis is also performed to identify the key parameter which affects the performance on voltage unbalance
reduction. It is found that %VUF directly relates to the maximum of power difference between the phases.
Therefore, load management or energy storage can be applied to reduce voltage unbalance problems.

4.6
%VUF at Substation1
%VUF at Substation2

Voltage Unbalance Factor (%)

4.4 %VUF at Substation3

4.2

3.8

3.6

3.4

3.2

2.8
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Time (s)

1.4 (a) 1.6

%VUF at Substation1 %VUF at Substation1
%VUF at Substation2 1.4 %VUF at Substation2
1.2

Voltage Unbalance Factor (%)

Voltage Unbalance Factor (%)

%VUF at Substation3 %VUF at Substation3

1.2
1

1
0.8

0.8

0.6
0.6

0.4
0.4

0.2
0.2

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Time (s) Time (s)

(b) (c)

Fig. 4. (a) %VUF on grid side in case of single phase transformer, (b) %VUF on grid side in case of Scott transformer,
(c) %VUF on grid side in case of Le-Blanc transformer.

6. Conclusions

This paper presents modeling and simulation of the railway electrification system with different special
transformers for voltage unbalance study. The developed special transformer models are successfully implemented
on DIgSILENT PowerFactory software and have been verified with a simple train system in order to study the
effectiveness of reduction of voltage unbalance factors. Through these studies, the voltage unbalance reduction
performance of the single-phase, Scott and Le-Blanc transformers are compared.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University.

References

1. Y. Aihara, R. Miyazawam, and H. Koizumi, A Study on the Effect of the Scott Transformer on the Three Phase Unbalance in Distribution
Network with Single Phase Generators, International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG),
2012, p. 283-290.
2. M. Kalantari, M.J. Sadeghi, S.S. Fazel and S. Farshad, Investigation of Power Factor Behavior in AC Railway System Based on Special
Traction Transformers, Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Application, 2010, 2(11): 618-626.
3. P. Pillay and P. Manyage, Definitions of Voltage Unbalance, IEEE Power Engineering Review, (2001).
4. J. Kilter, T. Sarnet and T. Kangro, Assessment of Transmission Network Voltage Unbalance in Connection of High Speed Electrical Railway
Connection, Electric Power Quality and Supply Reliability Conference (PQ), 2014, p. 329-334.