Development of a novel methodology for DC railway power network analysis based on participation factor

Urban DC railways have played an important role in urban transportation, and railway operation and energy management have been emphasized to be important to achieve maximum efficiency from existing infrastructure. Fast, accurate DC railway power flow analysis is required to operate a DC railway efficiently, and this paper proposes a novel methodology to analyze the DC railway power network by implementing the participation factor (PF). The PF concept consists of a correlation between the vehicle and the substation, as explained using zones based on the position of the vehicles running on the route. Then, the DC railway powerflow is calculated using the PF concept. Finally, the usability of the proposed method was validated via case studies with actual railway operation data, and we discuss some of the advantages of the suggested methodology.