In DC electric railways, power is supplied to trains from DC substations. The voltage declines at pantographs on the way due to the voltage drop caused by impedance, in particular the resistance of feeding wires. When there is quite a large distance between adjacent substations, the train may be hindered from the continuous operation due to the significant voltage drop caused by the higher ratio of the acceleration or energy consumption of the train. We have recently developed new measures that we call "substation support equipment" against this concern. In this paper we report the basic concept and overview for the substation support equipment, together with results of on-site performance tests and artificial fault tests.

Copyright (c) 2003 Railway Technical Research Institute