Measuring the power quality of railway networks

The measurement and monitoring of power quality on electric railway networks is a complex problem with several practical constraints. A digital acquisition system is presented: it was designed and implemented to perform the required task on-board of different locomotives across several EU countries. Ease of installation and operation, and robustness are the main requirements. Sample results illustrate the characteristics of the investigated phenomena, the different sources of emissions and the non idealities of the traction power supply, together with the synergy of different analysis methods: Fourier spectra, time-frequency representation of stationary and non stationary components and the statistical representation of spectra.