3 ms·
Correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems that regenerative braking is a bit troublesome because it is a third rail direct current system: a "regular" AC system can
by crote 9y ago
Correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems that regenerative braking is a bit troublesome because it is a third rail direct current system: a "regular" AC system can simply feed power back through the transformers to the power grid, but this is not possible here, so power must be consumed by another train fed by the same rectifier.
- hydrogen18 9y agoIt would be much more difficult to feed power back into an AC grid from a regenerative brake. With a DC grid, no synchronization is needed.
- F_r_k 9y agoThat's not true. 1) modern railway is fully IGBT powered. In this case it is trivial to inject current. 2) with DC current you need a substation capable of converting AC to DC (easy: bridge rectifier) but also DC to AC (to given tolerances) which is much more cumbersome.
- mhb 9y agoYou're not wrong: However, that [regeneraative braking] can only work where trains are accelerating and braking at the same time, on the same electricity sub-station loop.
- ams6110 9y agoOr something like super capacitors to hold the braking energy until the train needs to a accelerate again