UNBALANCE AND HARMONIC DISTORTION ON AC TRACTION SYSTEMS: A STATISTICAL APPROACH

From the utility network point of view, the alternating current (AC) catenary of a traction system power supply is one of the most severe consumers because of the unbalance and harmonic distortion is generates. This paper analyzes the unbalance and harmonic distortion introduced by a suburban traction system with several trains in service. Each train is considered as a harmonic and unbalance generator. Because of the high number of trains in service, a deterministic approach to quantify the disturbances introduced by the whole set may produce a fastidious result; therefore, this paper shows that this quantification may be achieved by using a probabilistic methodology. For the presented case study, it is concluded that the most severe disturbance is introduced by harmonic generation.