Braking energy recuperation

This article estimates energy savings through braking energy recuperation and capital cost savings through increased substation spacing. The TCRs provide advantages over diode rectifiers: better voltage regulation and fault current limiting translating into some operational savings (energy savings through increased DC bus voltage, improved service life) and capital savings (reduced number of substations). Assuming just 15% spacing increase in the new substation installations, capital savings with TCR are more than 10%. The additional savings with RTCR over SDR are through braking energy recuperation back to the AC line. Energy savings can be as high as 50% depending on the train speed profile, train car efficiency, rail resistance, etc. Upgrading existing SDR substations to RTCR gives substantial energy savings and has a payback of two to two and a half years, improving throughput up to 60% without incurring additional real estate and construction expenses.