There has been an announcement that California is requesting electric consumption reductions by all persons due to the excess heat. Now once the 2 systems are in operation how can the rail and light rail companies handle any brownouts in the future ?
Cut back trips, accelerate trains slower and reduce top speeds, use diesels ? One thing that cannot be reduced is HEP draws for passengers on in use equippment for the A/C . CA HSR maay only have a very few diesels for work trais and maybe some for standby rescue ?
Well, we’re years from having to worry about that for HSR, but what about Muni, BART, and other electrified transit operators? Have any of them ever proposed service adjustments specifically aimed at reducing electricity usage? I’ve never heard of anything like that in previous heat-related power squeezes.
Buy more power from the nuclear plant in Arizona
I think we can assume that by the time the San Jose electrification is operational, let alone CHS, the power problem will be solved. What is needed is additional capacity on transmission lines frm he east, not necessarily new generation in Cqlifornia.
Transit rail is such a tiny percentage of electrical usage in California.
I think some of the computer server sites use more power than BART or Muni put together. I have read about one server farm taking more than 90 MVA. Compared to Google, Facebook and the others, transport is low useage.
One possible way to ease the situation: an advanced form of regenerative braking for the HSR/San jose electrification.
The Siemens ACS-64 can feed back 100% regenerative braking energy into the catenary when the grid is able to accept it.
So I exspect the Californian locomotive will equipped similarly.
The Siemens EuroSprinter saves about 15% by feeding back regenerative braking energy depending on topology and driving pattern.Regards, Volker
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