The paper “Multi-pulse Active Substation for Power Quality Improvement and Recovery of Regenerative Braking Energy in DC Railway“, written by Hamed Jafari Kaleybar, Morris Brenna and Dario Zaninelli, received a Best Paper Award at the IEEE ICHQP 2024 (International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power), held in Chengdu (China) from 15 to 18 October 2024. A prestigious award because it was named after the memory of Prof. Alexander Emanuel, founder of the conference, who recently passed away.

The study explores the potential of active traction stations (ATSS) with interleaved PWM rectifiers, an advanced technology that uses multiple conversion modules operating in parallel with controlled phase shifting to reduce energy losses and improve voltage quality. Analysing the Italian 3 kV DC railway line, the work compares ATSS with traditional diode rectifier traction substations, evaluating parameters such as contact line voltage fluctuation, stress on passive components, total harmonic distortion and power factor.

The results, based on real data from the Italian railway system, provide useful indications for the implementation of ATSS in similar railway infrastructures, contributing to a more efficient, sustainable and technologically advanced railway transport. This award confirms the role of the Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano in applied research for the innovation of railway power systems.