The statistics analyses of feeder protection actuation of the contact network on the example of the Trans-Baikal railway

Abstract

The article considers the issue of improving the reliability of traction power supply systems from point of view of relay protection operation. The problems of JSC «Russian Railways» are pointed out faced by the company when creating a development strategy during the analysis of the current state of the infrastructure. Some issues and tasks of the holding's infrastructure development are considered, including the impact of high-mass trains while striving to reduce the inter-train interval, on reducing the reliability of the traction power supply system from the point of view of relay protection operation. The analysis of statistical data on the operation of feeders relay protection of the contact network is carried out on the example of the Trans-Baikal Railway – a branch of JSC «Russian Railways». The results of calculating descriptive statistics for frequent types of outages are presented. The most typical types of relay protection actuations have been identified. The distribution of the feeder disconnections of the contact network for overload reasons has been established over power supply distances. Conclusions are made that the most characteristic types considered of relay protection actuations are largely due to the transition to a microprocessor base for the implementation of terminals for directional remote protection of contact network feeders. The algorithms underlying the relay protection have remained unchanged the fundamental disadvantage of these being the inability to fully differentiate between normal and emergency modes of operation of the system when trains of increased mass are moving. For the possible solution of these issues, the authors propose changes to the algorithm of the backup stage of directional remote protection, as the protection algorithm should be dynamic, changing with respect to the load.