Mitigation of Stray Current Interference from DC Electric Railroad(1) Domestic Conditions

직류전기철도의 누설전류 간섭대책(1) 국내 현황

With the wide spread of direct current (DC) electric railroads in Korea, the stray currents from negative return rails become a pending problem to the safety of nearby underground infrastructures, such as gas pipelines, water distribution lines, heat pipelines, POF cables, etc. The mitigation of such interference, however, is mainly dependent on stray current drainage bond methods, which connect the underground metallic structures to the negative feeder cables attached to the rails with diodes (polarized drainage) or thyristors (forced drainage). Despite some merits of these methods, they increase the total amount of stray currents from rails and cause other interference problems. In this paper, we summarize the domestic conditions of stray current interference and describe a conceptual design of other mitigation methods for such interference.