Peak power demand and energy consumption reduction strategies for trains under moving block signalling system

In the moving block signalling (MBS) system where the tracking target point of the following train is moving forward with its leading train, overload of the substations occurs when a dense queue of trains starts (or restarts) in very close distance interval. This is the peak power demand problem. Several methods have been attempted in the literature to deal with this problem through changing train's operation strategies. However, most existing approaches reduce the service quality. In this paper, two novel approaches - "Service Headway Braking" (SHB) and "Extending Stopping Distance Interval" (ESDI) - are proposed according to available and unavailable extra station dwell times, respectively. In these two methods, the restarting times of the trains are staggered and traction periods are reduced, which lead to the reduction of peak power demand and energy consumption. Energy efficient control switching points are seen as the decision parameters. Nonlinear programming method is used to model the process. Simulation results indicate that, compared with ARL, peak power demands are reduced by 40% and 20% by applying SHB and ESDI without any arrival time delay, respectively. At the same time, energy consumptions are also reduced by 77% and 50% by applying SHB and ESDI, respectively. © 2013 Qing Gu et al.