Train group control for energy-saving DC-electric railway operation

Effective use of regenerative brake is important to manage energy-saving. This paper presents a running method for energy-saving on DC-electric railways considering restriction of keeping running time. First, two methods are compared for an energy-saving operation. One is applying a low notch-off speed with a strong brake. The other one is applying a fully regenerative brake with an ordinary notch-off speed. Second, we propose a manual train operation assistance method based on a power-limiting brake for an energy-saving train operation. Drivers are assisted to realize the power-limiting brake notch by an on-board system consisting of computers and interface devices. In order to consider the power limitation and resolve assistance operation problems focusing on braking delay time, this method has been checked by experiments on a revenue service line. Third, we propose a method to visualize power consumption on a train diagram to reduce peak power consumption on train rescheduling at operation irregularities. Fourth, we use a train diagram rescheduled by considering passenger flow and visualize the consumed and regenerated powers on the train diagram. Finally, we propose electric circuit models of railway systems to analyze power flow.