Technical and Economical Study About the Interest in Using Pemfc Systems to Feed Stand Alone Railway Equipment

Fuel Cell technology is believed by the French National railway company “SNCF” as a potential technology to feed stand alone railway equipments of fixed facilities (traffic signals, level crossing, …). The interest in Fuel Cells might be cost reduction owing to avoiding temporary grid power line construction during rail workings, owing to improvement of the mean time between maintenance operations and owing to vandalism acts decrease (especially copper cable robbery).  In order to make sure of this interest, a technical and economical study was carried out. The investigation compares 3 types of energetic systems dedicated to stand alone applications: Fuel cells, Photovoltaic, batteries.

The highest SNCF constraint is to ensure the energy continuity, with no maintenance during 18 months. Therefore, with the intention to improve reliability of PEM Fuel Cell system, a specific fluidic and electrical architecture is proposed.

Based on technological features of each of these 3 systems and on technico-economical dimensioning, the study presents the comparison of the main solutions for several facility configurations in order to fulfil SNCF (PEFC system power, H2 storage, battery energy, PV area and investment & end of life costs).

The main outcomes from the technico-economical study are:

• A hydride fuel Cell system can technically answer to railway facility constraints applied to stand alone conditions.
• Batteries alone require a huge storage capacity which is not in accordance with size and cost criteria.

• Fuel Cell systems can be competitive in comparison with photovoltaic systems.