Electric public transport grids (or traction grids) are historically oversized and underutilized infrastructures. This offers great potential for serving third-party loads, such as EV chargers, at a fraction of the costs and grid updates required. However, this multi-functional use of the traction grids is not only an opportunity, but rather a necessity for the techno-economic feasibility of any renewable energy system connected to it. This is because, unlike any other grid, traction grids have users that are constantly moving, unpredictable (traffic delays), and quickly switch from being a consumer to being a producer of electric power (regenerating braking energy). This landscape proves also to be challenging for the proper placement, sizing, and control of any storage system and introduces some new functionalities for energy storage while making other ones redundant or infeasible. 

After this course, the students will be able to: 

– Describe the electrical layout and differences between the different traction grids of trains, metro, trams, and trolleybuses. 

– Describe the importance of, challenges in, and requirements for the modeling the power flow in electric transport grids and analyzing the signs of risks in the grid operation. 

– Perform basic power flow calculations and modeling of renewable energy sources and energy storage systems. 

– Describe and analyze the trade-offs in the design and integration of renewable energy sources and third-party loads into traction grids and the judging the constructive or (unintentionally) destructive role of energy storage in that multi-functional system design. 

The course will culminate in a group project where each team of students is required to design a multifunctional transport grid at a different case-study city using real data.