IN2RAIL – Innovative Intelligent Rail
A significant increase in traffic demand for both passengers and freight is expected in the near future. This will require a substantial improvement of the transport system infrastructure and of the quality of service provided to the customers. In this context, current European policies are pushing for a shift of the medium distance transport mode towards railway systems, because of their lower environmental impact and their better efficiency and safety with respect to other transport modes.
Improvement of service reliability and reduction of operation and investment costs are key to unlock the potential available in railway systems. Technically, this requires designing smart infrastructures, and developing, implementing and deploying intelligent traffic management systems, and efficient energy management systems. These advancements are the foci of project IN2RAIL.
IN2RAIL is a large project that involves 54 partners from all the Europe, including manufacturers of railway equipment, infrastructure managers, railway operators, rail businesses, as well as research institutions. ACS will provide its expertise for the design of smart interfaces between railway power system and public power grids. The main objective is to define new feeding schemes and control strategies to minimize energy losses and reduce load peaks, while meeting the operational constraints at the connection with the public grid. The possibility to use the conceived schemes and control for the connection to lower voltage grids will be also evaluated through dedicated simulations. On the basis of the developed architecture, ACS will also investigate the energy metering infrastructure needed for the reliable operation of the energy management systems. Moreover, billing models and energy pricing strategies applicable to the future scenarios will be defined.
The project started in May 2015 and is now in its early stage. The total duration of the project is three years. Up to now, ACS involvement has been mainly on the definition of the main parameters at the feeding point of railway power systems and on the analysis of the conditions for the connection to public grids. The definition of these requirements is essential for the design of the interface at the connection point.
Announcements
On 19th of April, the In2Rail final event was held in Vienna. In the final conference three workshops with the topics of "Smart Infrastructure", "Intelligent Mobility Management" and "Rail Power Supply & Energy Management" were presented.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no. 635900.