Power Quality Issues in Railway Electrification: A Comprehensive Perspective

Since the beginning of railway electrification, power quality has been a main problem in railway networks because of their special characteristics. Many ways of power quality improvement have been investigated and applied to ac and dc traction systems through railway electrification history. This paper presents a perspective on power quality issues through railway electrification development and investigates the necessity of power quality and system requirements for appropriate power quality. Compensation strategies are classified and compared. This aims to provide a comprehensive perspective of the power quality issue in railway power/distribution networks for researchers and engineers working on railway electrification. Less than 100 research articles are referenced for researchers to obtain good background information.

I. Introduction

RAILWAY electrification has been begun in the early 20th century [1], [2]. It was embraced in many countries because of its advantages such as lower air pollution, heavy load and mass transit ability, high efficiency, and, most recently, because of reduced generation. From the start of railway electrification, power quality was a significant concern for electrification apologists, and many research studies have been dedicated to power quality improvement in rail distribution systems.