Tokyo Metro TV CM- power regeneration

[bikkuri bahn]

Saw this on TV this evening.  It features the surplus power scheme from regenerative braking used at Myoden Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line.  Any power from regenerative brakes not used for other trains is diverted to station utilities.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0QBeCyQuIM

 

http://www.mitsubishielectric.com/news/2014/0918.html

[cteno4]

Very nice, always good to see power not being wasted. Smart power management really is something that needs more attention as there are a lot of potential savings out there!

 

Jeff

[kvp]

If this is new, then i'm surprised. In Hungary since 1931 railway traction and normal household electricity is supplied by the same power network. This means, trains using regenerative braking first power other locomotives in the region, then the rest going into the common network. The same system was first used in the Budapest underground in 1894, where the undersized steam powered generator was too weak to supply all cars accelerating at the same time, so the schedule was set that one train braked at a station when the opposite direction accelerated away. (there were no resistive brakes on them, just dynamic with feedback and the electromagnetic spring loaded parking brakes) Failing to do this and having too many trains accelerate at the same time resulted in the station lights dimming and a complete power loss even tripped the ATS of the motor coaches. (the common strategy was/is to depower tracks behind a red light) The 1894 underground line originally used 380V DC, back then the common industrial voltage for lift and traction motors and lighting, while the 1931 Budapest-Vienna HSR line used 15/25KV AC at 50Hz, pretty much the same what shinkansens use today. As you see both solutions just connected everything together and did not use inverters for power conversion, which is what the article above is about, but this isn't exactly new either. Even household meters are in use that rotate both ways, so feeding back into the network rotates the counter backwards. Anyway, nice to see that Japan is trying to do their best to decrease wasted electricity.