ITEC Asia-Pacific 2014 1569951707
Dynamic Simulation of the DC Traction Power
System Considering Energy Storage Devices
Zhaoxin Jia1, Zhongping Yang2, Fei Lin3,Xiaochun Fang4
Beijing Jiaotong University,Beijing 100044
13121418@bjtu.edu.cn1,zhpyang@bjtu.edu.cn2,flin@bjtu.edu.cn3,me330221789@qq.com4
Abstract- Models of different parts of the DC power system
including the energy storage devices—supercapacitors (SCs) are
discussed in this paper. Charging and discharging voltage
thresholds and SOC (State of Charge) should be taken into
consideration when establishing the SCs model. Also the
algorithm to calculate the power flow of the system changes
after the addition of SCs. Combined with the states of traction
network, the control strategy of SCs is analyzed in detail. The
dynamic simulation is based on the Chain—rule Reduction of
Ladder Circuit Jacobian Matrices method. To compare the
energy saving and voltage stabilization effects, three equipmnet
installation conditions—with braking resistors (BRs) only, with
SCs only, with neither of them, are set in this paper. The
simulation program is edited in Matlab with m language. Finally
with this program the simulation results of a certain metro line
in three conditions were compared and analyzed, and all effects
were achieved.
Keywords- DC power system, Supercapacitors, Braking
Resistors, SOC, Charging and discharging,
I. INTRODUCTION
The characteristics of modern urban rail transportation
include short distance between stations, high starting and
braking frequency. For the reasons above, the regenerative
braking energy of trains is a considerable sum. However, in
actual operation, when there are no starting trains or other
factors to absorb the regenerative braking energy produced by
braking trains, the excess energy would make the voltage of
braking trains and the bus voltage of nearby traction
substations raise. This may lead to the failure of regenerative
braking.
Excess regenerative braking energy can be absorbed by
energy storing devices like supercapacitors (SCs). And the
stored energy can be released when the network voltage is
under the minimum limit that the SCs sets. As mentioned
above, the excess energy is used, network voltage fluctuation
is reduced and failure of regenerative braking is prevented.
It is a good idea to use simulation technique to finish the
configuration schemes of energy storing devices. References
[1-2] calculate the DC power flow with node voltage method.
In this paper, instead of traditional method, the chain—rule
reduction of ladder circuit Jacobian matrices method which is
mentioned in reference [3] is used. It reduces the complexity
of matrix manipulation in order to improve computational
efficiency and numerical robustness.
With the addition of SCs, there should be some
improvement to the power flow algorithm.References [4-6]
have analyzed the DC power system that have installed SCs.
The control strategy of SCs was combine with the states of
the system and the action conditions were explained in detail.
1
In this paper, the states of substations where there are SCs
are classified by the bus voltage and many other factors. As
comparisons, the system only have braking resistors (BRs)
installed are introduced briefly. And the control strategy and
models are added to DC flow calculation method to verify the
feasibility of the algorithm.
II. MODELS OF TRACTION CIRCUIT
A. Models of Traction System
The DC side of traction system feeds electric power to
metro directly. It is consist of rail, catenary or third rail,
feeder line, return conductor line. Metro trains run on the up
tracks and down tracks. Up tracks and down tracks are
connected at the substation busbars, and the return conductor
lines are considered to be connected at the substations only
for the convenience of modeling. As shown in Fig.1., rectifier
units of traction substations (TSS) rectify the AC power into
DC power of 750V or other voltage levels. The
DC power feeds metro vehicles through catenary or third rail
and vehicles current returns through rails.
Fig.1. DC Traction Power Supply System
1. Rectifier Units
External characteristics of the rectifier units refer to the
relationship between the output voltage and the load current
or short-circuit current in the DC side. The relationship can
be described with a curve. Usually, a rectifier unit is modeled
as a constant ideal voltage source with a constant internal
resistors. But actually the external characterstic is nonlinear.
Reference[7] put forward a calculation model to simulate
the 24-pulse rectifier unit which is by far the most widely
used in DC power system of metro. The 24-pulse rectifier
unit can be simulated as two parallel 12-pulse rectifiers cause
the output characteristics of these two are similar. In this
paper, the model of 24-pulse rectifier is used to make the
simulation more accurate.
2. Trains
References [8-10] take trains to be power sources, and it
is more accurate than current sources. The power that trains
get from traction power system has almost no relationship
with traction network voltage, but the current that the trains
get would be seriously affected by the voltage. The power
that a train should get can be gotten from train traction
calculation. However, power sources make the circuit
equations of DC power system nonlinear, and iterative
solution is needed.
B. Models of Energy Storage Devices
1. Charge and Discharge Voltage Threshold of SCs
Fig.2 is a representative curve that shows the constant
current charge and discharge characteristics. Etss is the no
load voltage of substation, Vdis is the discharge voltage
threshold, Vchar is the charge voltage threshold. When bus
voltage of a substation is between Vdis and Vchar, SCs do not
take action; when higher than Vchar, SCs are in the state of
charging, surplus regenerative braking energy is absorbed and
excessively high voltage is suppressed; when lower than Vdis,
SCs will be in the state of discharging, the energy that has
been stored in SCs would be released into traction power
supply system and trains nearby in traction state can use the
released energy. As mentioned above, the purpose of energy
saving is achieved.
Fig.2. Constant current charging and discharging characteristic of SCs
The charging and discharging current are assumed to be
constant in SCs control method of constant current
charging-discharging. Actually, the current is hard to control
at a constant value, it will be greatly affected by charging and
discharging power and the energy stored in SCs.
In this paper, SCs are assumed to be power sources which
would be affected by energy storage capacity, bus voltage of
substations and power limits of charging and discharging.
2. Control Strategy of SCs
As mentioned above, the charging and discharging power
constraints for SCs include the energy that SCs already have
stored and SCs input and output power limits.
The power limits of SCs could be achieved by SOC
control.
Definition of SOC is:
1 (2)Splitting condition (Etss<=Vtss<=Vchar)
CU 2 sc 2
Esc 2 ⎛ Usc ⎞
SOC = = =⎜ ⎟ (1)
Esc max 1 CU 2 sc max ⎝ Usc max ⎠
2 enough and no traction power is needed. With the
ESCmax is the max capacity of the SCs, ESC is the current
energy in SCs, C is the value of SCs,USCmax is the max port
voltage of SCs,USC is the current port voltage of SCs.
Voltage of SCs changes a lot during the process of
absorbing or releasing energy. To protect SCs from being
2
damaged, there should be a certain margin for port voltage of
SCs. For example, when discharging, the port voltage of SCs
will be too low and the Boost booster function will be hard to
achieved. It is a normal SOC range of operation to be
0.25~0.95 which means the energy capacity of SCs should be
among 0.25ESCmax~0.95ESCmax.
C. System Model in DC Side
In normal bilateral feeding system, uptrack and downtrack
catenarys(three rails) are all connected at traction substation
busbars, also the rails of uptrack and downtrack are all
connected through the return lines. Current of metro vehicles
has relationship with all substations in the system, so in the
calculation of traction power flow, instead of only consider
several traction substations, all of them should be taken into
account.
For the parallel operation of the metro trains, in
establishing the circuit model of DC side the interaction
effect between up and down catenarys, and between up and
down rails need to be considered. As shown in Fig.3,
according to the thevenin theorem, in the DC side current
flow calculation, the AC side can be equivalent to a voltage
source (Etss), a series resistance (Rtss) and a series diode.
Power supply lines and rails between two nodes are
equivalent to centralized resistance model. Metro trains are
power sources (positive power sources represent traction
trains, negative power sources represent regenerative trains),
SCs are modeled as power sources (positive power sources
represent charging state, negative power sources represent
discharging state).
Fig.3. Part of equivalent circuit of DC side of traction power system
III. ALGORITHM
A. Four Conditions of Substations
According to the control strategy of SCs, there are four
kinds of operating conditions of every substation that have
installed SCs as follow:
(1)Traction condition (Vdis<=Vtss<Etss)
The substation releases electical power to the traction
system in this condition.
In this condition, rectifier unit of the substation is out of
service which means the regenerative braking energy is high
unidirectional conductivity of diodes, the substation splitting
in the system.
(3)Charging condition (Vtss>Vchar)
When there is too much surplus regenerative energy thus
the busbar voltage rises a lot. Until the bus voltage rise to SCs
charging threshold, and all charging conditions are meet, SCs
will be in the state of charging. The charging power is (Vchar − Vtu )Vchar (Vchar − Vtd )Vchar
associated with current state of SCs. Psur = − −
Ru Rd
SCs are equivalent to power sources that could get energy (Vchar − V ' tu )Vchar (Vchar − V ' td )Vchar (2)
from system and save the energy, just like what is shown in − −
R'u R'd
third graph of Fig.4.
(4)Discharging condition (Vtss<Vdis) Parameters in equation (2) can be explained with Fig.6.
When traction power required is much more than (3)Choose the smaller one between Pchmax and Psur to be
regenerative power nearby trains produced, the large the charging power-Pch.
power demand can make the substation busbar voltage drop Then the power balance equation at busbar turn to be:
to SC discharge voltage threshold, and if the SC discharge
conditions are all meet ,SC will provide power to the system. Ftss = − Pch − Pu − Pd − P ' u − P' d (3)
SCs in this condition is equivalent to negative power Pu、 Pd、 P' u、 P' d are the charging power from four
sources that could release energy to system together with branches which can be explained with Fig.6.
substation, just like what is shown in fourth graph of Fig.4.

Fig.6. Power balance at busbar in charging condition

C. Calculation Method of and Discharging

Fig.4. Four conditions of substations installed SCs

B. Calculation Method of Charging

Fig.7. Calculating flow of discharging condition

(1)When the bus voltage is lower than Vdis, detect the Esc
and determine the maximum discharging power Pdismax
based on the current SOC curve.
(2)Calculate the power that the system should get from the
substation-Pneed to maintain the bus voltage to be close to
Fig.5. Calculating flow of charging condition Vdis as much as possible.
(1)When the bus voltage is higher than Vchar, detect the Esc The equation to calculate Pneed can be expressed as
and determine the maximum charging power Pchmax based follow:
on the current SOC curve.
(2)Calculate the power that the SCs should absorb-Psur to (Vdis − Vtu )Vdis (Vdis − Vtd )Vdis
Pneed = − −
maintain the bus voltage to be close to Vchar as much as Ru Rd
possible. (Vdis − V ' tu )Vdis (Vdis − V ' td )Vdis (4)
− −
The equation to calculate Psur can be expressed as follow: R'u R' d

3
 Parameters in equation (4) can be explained with Fig.8.
(3)Then the power balance equation at busbars turn to be:
Ftss = Pdis + Ptss − Pu − Pd − P' u − P ' d
Power supplied by substation can be calculated as follow：
Ptss = ( Etss − Vtss )Vtss / Rtss
Similarly, Pu、 Pd、 P'u、 P' d are the power from four
branches which can be explained with Fig.7.
convergence condition as shown in equation(7), the
iterations stop, otherwise continue the iteration;
(5) Ptssi − Ptssi + 1 ≤ ε 1 (7)
(6)Calculate every substation bus voltage with the results of
step(5), if every bus voltage meet the convergence
(6)
conditions as shown in equation(8), stop the iteration of
bus voltage, otherwise continue the iteration;
Vtss i − Vtss i + 1 ≤ ε 2 (8)
(7)Judge whether the output current of rectifier unit is among
the working range of its equivalent model, if it is,the results
is the final, otherwise return to step(2).
(8)Output results of this moment and start the calculation of
next moment until the end of the last one.
Algorithm flow chart is shown in Fig.10.

Fig.8. Power balance at busbar in discharging condition

D. Model of Ground BRs
For the substations which are installed with BRs, when the
bus voltage is higher than the action voltage of BRs-Vlim, the
equivalent circuit at substation is shown in Fig.9. The bus
voltage of every substation could be controlled at or a little
higher than the action voltage of BRs. Therefore, BRs are
supposed to be constant voltage source of which the value is
Vlim in the simulation.

Fig.10. Flow chart of DC power flow calculation considering SCs

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSES

A. Simulation Conditions and Parameters
Here take a certain metro line as an example to certify the
models and algorithm.
Fig.9. Power balance at busbar in BR condition Simulation parameters are shown below:
E. Algorithm Flow Chart TABLE I
The power sources models of trains make the flow MAIN ELECTRIC PARAMETERS OF SIMULATION
equations nonlinear. The Chain-Rule Reduction of Ladder Item Value
Circuit Jacobian Matrices method can solve the problems. Catenary resistance 0.007Ω/km
Steps to calculate DC power flow are as follow: Rail resistance 0.009Ω/km
(1)Establish a equivalent circuit according to current power SCs capacity 10kWh
system state and trains positions; Pchmax 2MW
(2)Set initial working ranges of every rectifier units at every Pdismax 2MW
substation or update the working ranges; Vchar 870V
(3)Set the initial busbar voltage of every substation-Vtss or Vdis 780V
update them; Initial SOC 0.6
(4)Judge the condition of every substation according to its Range of SOC 0.25~0.95
bus voltage, determine the charging or discharging power Vlim 870V
of every SCs or determine wether ; Assume there are SCs every substation, and to make use of
(5)Solve ladder circuit of every power supply range with the excess regenerative energy as much as possible, discharge
Newton-Raphson method, if the power injected meet the voltage threshold is set to be a high level.

4
 Larger departure intervals lead to sparse vehicles on the (2)With BRs, bus voltage can be controlled below the action
line, then regenerative energy is less likely to be absorbed by voltage or a little higher for there is power limit to the
other trains. Here take 300s as the departure interval, the resistors.
situation as the whole system operating with trains running on (3)SCs can make the voltage fluctuation be smallest and
the metro line is simulated. perform well on inhibiting bus voltage drop, but being limited
The train operation data on both downtrack and uptrack by Pchmax,Pdismax and SOC, it is not controlled as good as
could be gotten by traction calculation. with BRs when bus voltage is high and still there is some
B. Results and Analyses seconds the bus voltage is low.
Three cases are set as follow: Under the three cases in the operation period of 3000 ~
1.There are no BRs and SCs in every substation; 3300s, changes of network voltage in No.11 substation are
2.There are BRs in every substation; compared as an example.
3.There are SCs in every substation.
The simulations following are finished under these three
kinds of situations.
The action voltage of the BRs to absorb excess
regenerative energy is set to be 870V which is the same as
charging voltage threshold of SCs.
Fig.11. Voltage-Time curve of No.11 substation in case 1 (without R&SCs)
Attention should be paid to the operation period for a train
to run the full distance of the whole line is about 3000s and
the same operation situation will appear every 300s. Here,
3000~3300s is chosen to be the observation period to
compare the results of three plans in network voltage changes
and energy costing.
Fig.12. Voltage-Time curve of No.11 substation in case 2 (with R)
TABLE II
MAX VOLTAGE OF EACH SUBSTATION
Substation Without With R(V) With SCs(V)
R&SCs(V)
1 891.18 873.20 872.94
2 907.10 878.12 891.11
3 913.00 875.00 890.82
4 890.89 872.09 870.83
5 872.76 862.10 876.43 Fig.13. Voltage-Time curve of No.11 substation in case 3 (with SCs)
6 900.12 876.72 877.70 Results of energy absorption with resistors and with SCs
7 909.98 884.91 882.44
can both inhibit the substation network voltage to be too high.
8 915.59 888.25 905.08
9 900.64 872.94 877.88 But when the voltage drop is serious, SCs can release the
10 907.79 877.01 880.96 stored energy, and thus show a better inhibition effect on
11 912.76 882.64 912.76 voltage sags.
12 905.54 876.87 884.25
It should be noted that when it is between 3000~3050s,
13 900.02 873.28 872.14
there is a wave head higher than 900V in Fig.13, this is
TABLE III because the SOC reach the max value and SCs could not
MIN VOLTAGE OF EACH SUBSTATION
absorb anymore energy. Similarly, it occurred that the bus
Substation Without With R(V) With SCs(V)
R&SCs(V) voltage is below 750V when it is between 3250~3300s cause
1 750.12 750.12 780.90 SOC of the SCs reach the min value.
2 732.41 732.41 770.77 The energy saved by the SCs of each substation in this
3 723.90 723.90 740.24 300s is as follow:
4 719.12 719.12 772.22
5 738.11 738.11 779.89 TABLE IV
6 718.00 718.00 762.33 ENERGY SAVED BY SCS AT EACH SUBSTATION
7 734.89 734.89 762.28 Substation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 715.87 715.87 736.31
Energy(kWh) 6.96 7.91 7.19 3.40 3.08 4.19 4.89
9 748.02 748.02 774.56
10 739.20 739.20 777.96 Substation 8 9 10 11 12 13
11 710.27 710.27 725.93 Energy(kWh) 6.19 6.79 8.24 6.84 2.33 2.14
12 746.19 746.19 774.69
13 749.04 749.04 772.72 As what can be seen in the simulation results, the SCs
From Table II and Table III, conclusions can be derived as installed in the urban rail traction power supply system can
follow: stabilize network voltage, in addition, through the release of
(1)Without BRs and SCs, the bus voltage of every substation stored regenerative energy, the energy saving function is also
will fluctuate in a greater range than the other two conditions. achieved which can be derived from Table IV.

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 V. CONCLUSION
In reference of the existing algorithm, this paper puts
forward a calculation method to simulate the DC traction
power flow with SCs energy storage system, establishes the
calculation models of DC traction power supply system
including SCs. Finally, combined with a concrete example,
the inhibition effect on network voltage fluctuation and
energy saving effect of SCs are proved, the feasibility of this
algorithm is verified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research is under the support of Beijing Laboratory of
Urban Rail Transit, all support is gratefully acknowledged.
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