Toshiba Supplies Traction Energy Storage System for Tobu Railway

OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation (Tokyo: 6502) today announced that it has supplied a traction energy storage system (TESS) to Tobu Railway Co., Ltd. TESS stores traction energy generated by decelerating trains as they enter a station and releases it as needed when trains accelerate from the station. The system is planned to operate from December 22.

Toshiba’s TESS is installed at Unga station on the Tobu Urban Park Line, and utilizes Toshiba’s SCiB™ rechargeable batteries to store regenerated power. SCiB™ offer outstanding characteristics, including a high degree of safety, a wide state-of-charge (SOC) range^*1and stable operation at low temperatures. Toshiba’s TESS realizes efficient charging and discharging by offering a battery capacity ten times that of typical traction energy storage systems^*2, and also employs the company’s proprietary charge-discharge control technology, which takes full advantage of the wide SOC range of the SCiB™.

At Unga Station, regenerative traction energy from train deceleration is stored in the TESS for supply as needed when trains are accelerating from the station, facilitating stable electricity supply.

In addition to supporting stable supply, the system can also be optimally configured to support other applications, including traction energy loss prevention and peak demand power management.

Going forward, Toshiba intends to proactively expand marketing of traction energy storage systems and other products that facilitate efficient energy use of energy, to railway companies in Japan and overseas.

 Conceptual Drawing of Traction Energy Storage System (TESS)

Unga Station - Traction Energy Storage System Specifications

Note:

*1

Range at which the battery can actually be used, with the fully charged state taken to be 100%, and the fully discharged state taken to be 0%

*2

 In comparison to the battery capacity of a storage battery board per unit volume for a 500 kW system (TOSHIBA calculations)