Exceptional award for the PKP Energetyka traction energy storage facility in Garbce

The railroad traction energy storage located in Garbce near Żmigród in the Lower Silesia Voivodeship was awarded in the 5th edition of the Safety Culture Contest organised by the Office of Rail Transportation. Appreciation was given to the importance of using this solution to increase power supply reliability and railroad traffic safety. This is yet another award that PKP Energetyka received for this modern and innovative facility.

The award was presented during the 5th Safety Culture Conference combined with the 5th anniversary of the "Declaration on the development of safety culture in railway transport" project. The traction energy storage built by PKP Energetyka was awarded in the "Technical Solutions" category. The aim of the contest organised by the Office of Rail Transportation every year is to award entities and persons whose activities implement the rules of safety culture in everyday work by introducing innovative solutions or promoting proper attitudes. In the "Technical Solution" category, the organiser of the contest accepted applications concerning devices that ensure increased safety on the railroad or make it possible to eliminate or limit the sources of hazard in the railroad transport.

“I am very pleased with the award given to our traction energy storage facility in the 5th edition of the Safety Culture Contest. I consider it as an expression of appreciation of PKP Energetyka's activities and the efforts of all its employees aimed at the development of the whole rail transport in our country, especially increasing the level of railroad safety and reliability in Poland. The awarded project is also an example of the solutions we are implementing, which will enable the industry to cope with the challenges of the future, such as increasing the demand for power in the railroad power system and increasing the share of dispersed renewable energy sources in the railroad energy mix”, says Marek Kleszczewski, Member of the Management Board of PKP Energetyka.

The innovative traction energy storage with a power of 5.5 MW and a useful capacity of 1.2 MWh located in Garbce in Lower Silesia is the largest device of this type working for traction needs in Europe. The storage facility is located near a traction substation and is able to power the passage of even the fastest train within several seconds. It uses over 4.2 thousand state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, an innovative DC/DC power electronics converter, and the whole is managed by an advanced SCADA system. Since its official launch on July 1, 2021 the storage facility has already powered more than 6,000 passages of both regional and long-distance passenger trains and freight trains. The innovative solution developed by PKP Energetyka experts in cooperation with the University of Zielona Góra increases safety and quality of energy supply to the railway, and balances the power drawn from the National Power System. The facility reduces the peak load on the nearby traction substation and the distribution network that feeds it, which reduces the contracted power by up to 60%. The use of the storage facility also makes it possible to reduce transmission losses by about 63%. In the future, the facility in Garbce will also allow a more efficient use of renewable energy sources as part of the sector's Green Railway Program, the implementation of which will ensure that by 2030 Polish trains will be powered by 85% RES energy. PKP Energetyka plans to build approx. 300 such facilities on the railroad network throughout Poland.

The award granted in the 5th edition of the Safety Culture Contest is already the fourth award for the energy storage built by PKP Energetyka. At the TRAKO International Railway Fair in September, it was awarded a Medal of the President of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers (SEP) and the Czesław Jaworski Award granted by the Polish Association of Engineers and Technicians of Transportation (SITK RP). In early December 2021, it was granted the "Diamond Award" in the "Innovations" category in the "ESG Leaders" competition organised by the Stock Exchange, NN Investment Partners TFI and PwC.