Energy-efficient control method for freight electric locomotives on heavy-haul railways considering track conditions

With increasing traffic volumes on heavy-haul railways, the issue of energy consumption is becoming increasingly prominent, underscoring the urgent need to reduce energy consumption in the operation of these railways. Given that the traction of freight electric locomotives accounts for a significant portion of the energy supplied by the traction power supply systems, this paper proposes an energy-efficient control method for freight electric locomotives operating on heavy-haul railways, taking into account specific track conditions. Firstly, a dynamic load model was established to represent the operation of freight electric locomotives on railway sections based on the fundamental theory of traction calculations. Subsequent research explored an energy-efficient control method that considers both track conditions and punctuality requirements. Finally, simulations were conducted to assess the energy-saving effect by comparing energy consumption before and after optimization. The results reveal about 5% savings in energy consumption for the optimized locomotives, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed energy-efficient control method.