Ingeteam & Istem to install energy recovery system to save up to 30% of braking energy on Barcelona Metro

Image courtesy of Ingeteam

Trains consume energy but they also produce it while braking. Ingeteam has developed technology to harness this train braking energy, allowing between 1030% of this traction energy to be recovered. Now Ingeteam and Istem will fit the Barcelona Metro with such an advanced energy recovery system at one of its traction substations. The Barcelona metro network transported over 415 million passengers in 2014.

Ingeteam Technology in Germany, Spain and Belgium

The Bilbao metro is already equipped with this system, as is the Bielefeld (Germany) metro and the suburban line in Malaga (Spain). Furthermore, installation and commissioning is currently in process for the Brussels metro.

In the case of the Bilbao metro, 30% of the energy recovered using Ingeteam technology will be used by the metro network itself, to power escalators and lights etc. The remaining 70% will be fed back into the national grid. As a result of this technology, the metro provides the grid with the same amount of power used by 1500 families in a year.