- Traction drives
- Auxiliary converters
- AC & DC power supply systems
en
The beginning of this year saw the first test runs of Stadler’s tram for Kraków. The tram is the first of fifty modern vehicles that will be able to move around the capital of the Małopolska region without using the overhead contact line thanks to Medcom’s battery supply system. All of the trams are to be delivered by the end of 2020.
Each of the trams will be equipped with Medcom’s high-performance battery supply system that will make it possible for the vehicles to travel up to 3 km without any power supply from the overhead contact line. The use of this solution will make it possible for the trams to use parts of Kraków’s routes without the need to extend the city’s overhead contact line, which would disturb the cityscape of the Old Town. Initially, the batteries will be installed in two vehicles, while the others will be adapted for future installation.
“We developed our first on-board energy storage devices in 2014 for Siemens. This solution enabled the vehicle to cover as many as 24 km without any power supply from the overhead contact line and thus set a Guinness World Record for the longest distance covered by a tram powered by batteries only. What was once a considerable challenge and an important experiment to us is now being introduced into series production in Polish trams,” says Paweł Choduń, Medcom.
Each of the trams will also be equipped with Medcom’s E-recycler – a supercapacitor-based energy recovery system that will make it possible to recover the energy generated during braking of the vehicle. In Poland, the E-recycler has already been installed in trolleybuses in Gdynia and trams in Gdańsk, among others, soon to be joined by new trams for Warsaw.