Successful commissioning of charging sub-unit with balancing converter
The companies F&S PROZESSAUTOMATION GmbH (F&S) and Rail Power Systems GmbH (RPS) have completed the jointly developed compact charging sub-unit for a charging voltage of AC 15 kV 50 Hz.
The charging subunit was transferred from Dohna near Dresden to Alstom's Salzgitter plant by road transport in mid-February 2023, where it was erected ready for operation within four days.
This innovative contribution to the energy turnaround also attracted political interest when Torsten Herbst, a member of the Bundestag, visited our company on February 14, 2023.
The commissioning was carried out in two phases. First, the charging substation was tested in idle mode and functionality and protection settings were checked. For the second phase, Alstom provided the Coradia Continental 1440 402 traction unit, a vehicle from the pilot series of accumulator traction units for Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen (VMS). These are to be used in the future on the Leipzig - Chemnitz line. In addition to the usual catenary voltage of AC 15 kV 16.7 Hz, the vehicles were also upgraded for the charging voltage of AC 15 kV 50 Hz.
The commissioning tests proved that the vehicles can be supplied with AC 15 kV 50 Hz without any problems and without burdening the three-phase network with asymmetries or high harmonics.
The tests are a prerequisite for the transfer of the charging-unit to the Annaberg-Buchholz-South station, where the charging sub-unit will be tested under real operating conditions and made available to other vehicle manufacturers for testing.
