On Thursday 3 February almost 100 participants discussed the implementation of energy metering and billing systems for traction units at the UIC Energy Metering and Billing Day 2011 in Vienna, hosted by ÖBB Infrastruktur.
The Workshop brought together representatives from Infrastructure Managers, Railway Undertakings as well as the metering industry and vehicle manufacturers. Johann Pluy, Division Manager Energy, ÖBB Infrastruktur, welcomed the audience and reminded the participants that “energy metering and billing is an efficient means to preserving the environmental advantage of rail and save energy costs”. Henning Schwarz, Head of UIC’s Sustainable Development Unit, presented the wider context of energy efficiency in his opening speech and the connection of energy metering, billing and management with the UIC/CER longterm sustainability strategy, which was adopted last December and which defines ambitious CO2 reductions and energy efficiency targets for the European railway sector.
Presentations from ÖBB Infrastruktur, who presented their ÖBB RailwayBox & KFE solution, European Railway Energy Settlement System (ERESS) and Solvera Lynx, showcased the implementation of traction energy settlement systems. These solutions are available on the market and are implemented.
In the operators’ session ATOC, SNCF and SBB presented their view on the issue. The first operators have ‘opted-in’ for metered billing in the UK and others will follow. SNCF reported that serial equipment with traction energy meters of all new rolling stock is just starting. SBB on the other hand said that metering on a larger scale has a lower priority at the moment, as they are currently working on ‘fluid traffic’ and train control management solutions, but that metering will be an issue for the mid-term perspective.
In the “regulation & standardisation” session the regulatory framework provided by ERA and CENELEC was discussed. The metering standard EN 50463-series is expected to be published in summer 2012. But open questions were also mentioned: For example, cross-acceptance of metering systems is of high importance for the sector and has to be ensured by the regulatory framework in order to avoid different solutions all over Europe.
In the last session of the day presentations from FAR Systems, Microelettrica Scientifica and Görlitz Austria GmbH demonstrated that also the hardware for traction energy metering and energy reduction management are available on the market and ready for implementation.
Henning Schwarz, Head of UIC’s Sustainable Development Unit, concluded the workshop by saying “we have seen a lot of good progress, but the regulatory and standardisation framework provided by ERA and CENELEC has to be finalised as soon as possible to boost the implementation on a larger scale”.
The UIC Energy Metering and Billing Day 2011 is a follow-up workshop on the UIC Energy Billing project, which was concluded in 2009 with the publication of UIC leaflet 930 “Exchange of data for cross-border railway energy settlement”. The UIC leaflet 930 describes standard business processes which establish a traction energy settlement framework for Railway Undertakings and Infrastructure Managers for cross border traffic in Europe. Together with the standardisation of metering equipment done by CENELEC this will enable Railway Undertakings to pay their electric energy according to the actual consumption.
All presentations are available at www.uic.org
