Feeding-loss Reduction by Higher-voltage DC Railway Feeding System with DC-to-DC Converter

Reduction of the power loss is desired to reduce train operation energy in the DC railway feeding system, which is a lower-voltage and higher-current system in comparison with AC railway feeding system. It is difficult for existing DC lines to raise a feeding voltage due to costs of both dual-voltage vehicles and infrastructure although higher voltage is effective to solve feeding loss reduction. Therefore, the authors investigated renewed DC railway feeding system with a focus on feeding-loss reduction. This system consists of higher-voltage feeder and DC-to-DC converters in addition to the existing feeding circuit and enables to feed vehicles with conventional-voltage power. This paper reports the effect of feeding-loss reduction and other expected benefits brought by this system.