08.04.08
FAR Systems sign energy saving agreement with First Group
Far Systems and First Group have signed an important agreement for energy saving. FAR Systems is part of the Gruppo Industriale Tosoni, an Italian holding with a turnover of more than 150 million euro which has been working worldwide in construction and railways for about 60 years.
The agreement establishes the implementation of integrated systems in the railway sector for controlling and energy saving. The deal was announced during the ‘Future Fuels for Rail Traction’ event held recently in London.
Energy saving is a topic of increasing importance for operators in the railway sector and for transport in general. In Italy, for example, the amount of energy utilized in railway transportation is about 5% of national energy consumption.
“I am very pleased to be working with FAR Systems especially with its innovative and pioneer train energy management systems,” said John Hawkins, First Group Railways technical director.
FAR Systems will supply the TEMS (train energy management system) for First Group’s locomotives. The test involves 25 EMU trains. After the first phase, the supply of TEMS will be extended to all First Group’s EMU locomotives which cover more than 40 million kilometres every year.
TEMS provides integrated features: real time measurement of energy consumption, GPS localization of the train during its route, a link with the train diagnostic systems, on-board-to-ground and on-ground-to-board communications. Data is recorded and stored to analyse consumption taking into consideration route, composition, speed, board data etc to optimise energy consumption.
First Group has chosen TEMS to monitor energy consumption on a specific railway track in order to optimise the trip outline and allow energy savings. According to Bruno Cussing, FAR Systems vice-president, FAR Systems tests indicate that many coaches and trains are kept running when not required. The energy costs of an out of service train or a coach are extremely high even if the coach is just on the tracks.
According to a joint study promoted by FAR Systems and Trenitalia, the driver can be helped to define the best speed profiles to minimize energy costs for a single trip. “The operators can develop ecological ways of driving to minimize the use of energy for every single route through the combination of time, date, localization and the traffic status of the railway track.”
First Group is expecting to save about 7-8% by improving the management of on-board applications and a further 3-5% due to the optimization of trip energy consumption for a total saving of up to 13%.
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