Project Introduction:
For the Taipei Metro (also called MRT System), regular train maintenance and train scheduling are the key factors to deliver quality services as well as ensuring the safety of passengers, while its convenience, speed and numerous advantages are making people to rely on it to get around the city. Accordingly, through a normal electric source switching for each rail track to maintain the accuracy of train dispatching and operations is a great challenge in maintenance depot.

In response to such demand, the power supply system in Luzhou Depot adopted Advantech’s products to control and monitor a mass of relays and to cover the entire area through optical fiber transmission. Additionally, this solution empowers traditional serial (RS-232/422/485) devices to transmit data over an IP-based network, and its redundancy mechanism and rugged feature also provide reliability assurance so as to leverage the operating performance of power supply system.

System Requirements:
Before the Xinzhuang and Luzhou Line was officially opened to traffic in November 2010, a System Integrator, which is responsible for the power system construction of Luzhou Depot and has over 30 years of experience in the power transmission and distribution field, was evaluating a variety of hardware products so as to establish a complete system. Due to safety and stability considerations, the related products have to provide a feature for connecting multiple RS-485 serial devices to an Ethernet network without building the dedicated transmission line, and offer an easy way to set up a redundant Ethernet network for backup connection. Because the Depot covers an area of 16 hectares, supporting the long-distance transmission by optical fiber device is the critical demand. Meanwhile, the mechanical and electrical equipment is exposure to the sun that leads to the high temperature during operation, and high-voltage power environment can cause electromagnetic interference; therefore industrial grade specification is a prerequisite for this case.

System Description:
The electromechanical apparatus which is installed next to the rail contains two kinds of Advantech’s products, EKI-152X and EKI-7659C to offer excellent data transmission quality. By using EKI-152X to connect on-site serial device via RS-485, the engineering staff can use the computer in control room to always monitor the condition of protective relay so as to further control RTU (Remote Terminal Unit, a microprocessor-controlled electronic device). With dual Ethernet connections, this network-based Serial Device Server can greatly improve the device connectivity reliability and increase system stability. Besides, its software utility provides a friendly user interface with simple and easy configuration allowing users to comfortably manage EKI-152X devices.

As for the Industrial Ethernet Switch, EKI-7659C provides an easy way to establish a redundant network (X-Ring Pro) with ultra high-speed recovery time less than 20 ms; moreover its feature of optical fiber communication enables the data transmission (up to hundreds of kilometers) to cover greater distance. Both of EKI products support wide operating temperature (-10~60°C) to withstand the severe test in outdoor environment, and their metal shielded enclosure with robust design can not only protect the product but also can eliminate the problem of interference.

Project Implementation:

System Diagram:

Conclusions:
Train dispatching is one of the core tasks in running MRT operations. Advantech EKI products are able to help Metro’s maintenance depot to stabilize power supply, and our solution can allow any serial device to be easily implemented in IP-based network to provide less-costly and efficient data transfer. In addition, the features of wider temperature, anti-interference, redundant function and metal shell are our best guarantee for high quality and high stability. Since MRT passenger capacity continues upward trend and Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) plans to open new lines to traffic, the system supplier is willing to continually use more Advantech solutions to strengthen its power supply system all because we are capable of providing the superior products and best technical support.