The Metuchen static frequency converter is due to be completed in 2017. The upgrading project is part of the New Jersey High Speed Rail Improvement Program (NJHSRIP) being carried out by Amtrak between Trenton and New Brunswick, N.J., on the “New Jersey Raceway.”
The Sitras SFC Plus static frequency converter is a multilevel direct converter that supplies single-phase traction power networks from three-phase networks. It essentially consists of only one converter that directly couples the two networks. The three-phase AC voltage is directly converted into a single-phase AC voltage with a different frequency. Due to its multilevel technology, no traction transformer is needed to feed the overhead contact line.
“Siemens is currently the only supplier of multilevel direct converters.” said Mirko Düsel, CEO of the Siemens Rail Electrification Business Unit. “They can be universally used in both central and decentralized traction power supply networks and are already successfully operating internationally.”
Siemens’ static frequency converters have been successfully in use worldwide since 1994, including the 180-megawatt station operating for Amtrak in Richmond, Pa., which was the world’s biggest station at the time it was opened in 2002. Examples of the latest generation of the modular multilevel direct converter Sitras SFC Plus are in service in Häggvik and Eskilstuna in Sweden, as well as in Nuremberg, Rostock, Adamsdorf, Frankfurt/Oder, and Cottbus, Germany.