Application of an extreme control system to operate the reactive power compensator of an electric locomotive

Efficient use of fuel and energy resources is a high-priority area in the energy development strategy of railway transport up to 2030 adopted by OAO Russian Railways. Currently, ac electric locomotives with power rectifier–inverter transformers make up the majority of the usable fleet, in the range of 0.65 to 0.85. This is a cause of not only significant energy losses in the network of traction energy supply, but also restrictions affecting the speed of the locomotive. The energy characteristics of ac electric locomotives can be imptoved via compensation of the reactive power component. The reactive power compensator consists of series-connected capacitor C and inductance L connected to the secondary winding of the transformer. The LC circuit parameters are calculated for reactive power compensation of an electric locomotive in the nominal operation mode. In this article, a reactive power compensation device for electric locomotive made based on a regulated passive compensator was considered. The management of reactive power compensator is carried out by means of extreme control method. It is shown that the extreme control method for a reactive power compensator does not provide for direct calculation of the reactive power of an electric locomotive and significantly simplifies the management structure of a reactive power compensator. © 2016, Allerton Press, Inc.