New Transportation Electrification Study Finds Promising Technology for Traction Power Supply

A recent research study by Southwest Jiaotong University has explored the potential of co-phase power supply technology for future traction power supply. Investigators discovered that this technology offers power quality compensation and eliminates the need for a phase breaker, but embedding multiple power electronic devices complicates the stability of train-grid systems. The study, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, proposes a novel modeling approach that decouples the CPSU controller from the train-grid system, allowing for more stable operation. The researchers also designed an H-infinity controller to improve the robust stability of the co-phase traction power supply system, enabling stable operation with up to ten trains running.

Key Takeaways:

• The co-phase power supply technology holds promise for future traction power supply due to its power quality compensation and no need for a phase breaker.
• The embedding of numerous power electronic devices complicates the stability of train-grid systems.
• A novel modeling approach decouples the CPSU controller from the train-grid system, providing a theoretical basis for controller design.
• The robust stability margin (RSM) is used to evaluate the stability of the co-phase traction power supply system.
• The study reveals that conventional proportional-integral (PI) controllers fail to ensure good system stability under multitrain operating conditions.
• The H-infinity controller is designed to improve the robust stability of the co-phase traction power supply system, enabling stable operation with up to ten trains running.
• Time-domain simulations and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and control strategy.

Statistics:

• Up to six trains can maintain stable operation with conventional PI controllers.
• The H-infinity controller ensures stable operation of the system with up to ten trains running.
• 10836-10848: The IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification publication provides a detailed analysis of the CTPSS system.
• 11(5): The publication volume, issue, and page numbers provide a specific reference for the research.

Sources:

• Ieee Transactions On Transportation Electrification, "Low-frequency Stability Analysis of Co-phase Traction Power Supply System Based On a Control-oriented Model", 2025;11(5):10836-10848.
• National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
• Southwest Jiaotong University.
• Lei Ma, Southwest Jiaotong University, School of Electrical Engineering, Chengdu 611756, People's Republic of China.
• Feifan Liu, Fulin Zhou, Yongyi Liao, and Shaokun Cheng, co-authors of the study.