The application of SVC for the power quality control of electric railways

Electric railways are pollution sources of power quality in the public power system. The low power factor and current harmonics caused by AC-DC locomotives have been difficult problems needed to be deal with for a long time in China. Some countermeasures have been taken by the railway authorities to improve the power qualities in recent years. This paper presents the performance of the SVC, which is a combination of passive filters and thyristor controlled reactor, based on the measured data of power qualities of An-ding traction substation of Beijing-Shanghai electrified railway. The different operational manners of the compensator are compared with the measured data of three-phase unbalance and total harmonic distortion. The SVC technique has shown a promising solution to the improvement of power quality of electric railways. The compensator topology and relevant parameters should be given enough attention in engineering application to obtain an optimal effect.