Smart Electric Neutral Section Executer Embedded With Automatic Pantograph Location Technique Based on Voltage and Current Signals

Targeted at the issue of electric locomotives passing the neutral section in ac electrified railway, a novel intelligent electric phase separation system is proposed in this article, which is also named smart electric neutral section executer (SENSE). It consists of thyristors, several voltage and current transformers, and the control system. On one hand, the thyristors are used to replace the traditional high-voltage circuit breakers so that the power interruption time is significantly reduced when the locomotive passes the neutral section. On the other hand, an automatic pantograph location technique based on the traction network voltage and current information is presented. When the electric locomotive passes the neutral section, its pantograph is located through the voltage and current signals collected by the voltage and current transformers. All pantographs of a train are directly located, which can distinguish different marshaling modes and thus shorten the neutral section length significantly. The basic structure of SENSE and the principle of the pantograph location method are provided in this article. The SENSE equipment is commissioned in the Shenshuo heavy-haul railway in China, where the proposed pantograph location algorithms are verified as well.