A comparative study of different transformer connections for railway power supply- mitigation of voltage unbalance

The railway represents a large power consumer that can cause uneven loading of the phases in the high voltage grid. These unbalanced loads supplied by the utility may lead to voltage unbalance problems in the system and thereby affects the other consumers connected to the same network. It is fact that, voltage unbalance appears mainly as a result of unbalanced currents at the points of common coupling drawn by unevenly distributed loads.

Because of a significant amount of negative sequence current injected to the system, the power system components will suffer from consequent negative effects such as overheating, additional losses of lines and transformers, interference with communication systems etc. This paper presents a comparative study of some transformer connections which commonly used in railway supplying AC traction loads, for voltage unbalance mitigations.

Simulations for comparison of transformers are carried out and the results are also compared with the values obtained by the voltage unbalance estimation formulas.