IEEE Electrification Magazine - September 2016 - 2

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Power Systems
and Railway Power
Systems: So Similar,
So Different
By Eduardo Pilo de la Fuente

N CONFERENCES AND OTHER MEETINGS, I OFTEN
hear my railway electrical engineering colleagues
complain about how difficult it is to find forums
for exchanging ideas in their field. In many forums focused on
electrical engineering, railway applications are often a bit off
topic. On the other hand, in many forums focused on railways,
the electrical engineering subjects are also a bit off topic.
Railway power systems represent a special type of power
system. They can include power plants, transmission and distribution grids-with their electrical lines, transformers, reactive
compensation devices, and other parts-and electrical loads-
with all their components, such as motors, resistors, and electronic devices. Their design and operation must ensure that the
consumers (i.e., mostly the trains but also the infrastructure-
stations, signaling systems, and
heating systems) receive the
Railway power
energy with the specified charsystems represent
acteristics (i.e., voltage, frequena special type of
cy, and waveform).
However, what makes railpower system.
way power systems so unique
(and so complex in some ways)
is that the loads can move and change (and even become generators when the trains brake). These spatiotemporally varying
characterisitcs are the consequence of the final objectives of a
railway system, which are different than other power systems.
Although the goal of a power system is to provide electrical
power to the loads, the final objective of a railway system is to
transport passengers and goods according to a schedule, and
its power system is just a means of allowing it. For that reason,
the adopted solutions are different. For example, whereas ac

I

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2016.2584868
Date of publication: 2 September 2016

2

IE E E E l e c t r i f i c ati o n M agaz ine / SEPTEMBER 2016

EDITORIAL BOARD
Iqbal Husain
Editor-in-Chief
North Carolina State
University
North Carolina, USA
ihusain2@ncsu.edu
Eduard Muljadi
Editor, Electric Vehicles
NREL: Wind Research
Colorado, USA
eduard.muljadi@nrel.gov
Herb Ginn
Editor, Electric Ships
Universitiy of
South Carolina
South Carolina, USA
ginnhl@cec.sc.edu
Robert Cuzner
Editor, Electric Ships
University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Wisconsin, USA
Cuzner@uwm.edu
Eduardo Pilo de la
Fuente
Editor, Electric Trains
EPRail Research
and Consulting
Spain
eduardo.pilo@eprail.com

Steve Pullins
Editor, Microgrid
GridIntellect
Tennessee, USA
steve@gridintellect.com
Antonello Monti
Editor, Microgrid
RWTH Aachen
Germany
amonti@eonerc.
rwth-aachen.de
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University of
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Illinois Institute
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Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2016.2584867
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - September 2016
