Let’s take a look at one of the latest features developed by Eress. Erex system offers now train companies and infrastructure managers more control over their energy expenditures. How? By using energy metered data for billing shunting and stabling.

To quickly review, stabling is when a train is standing still and not being used for anything. In other words, the train is parked. Shunting, on the other hand, is when the train is moving but is not in service.

There are many reasons for shunting. The train may need to go in for maintenance or extensive cleaning. Alternatively, the train may need to be moved to make room for incoming trains. In that case, a special shunting locomotive is used to attach to the parked train and move it to a more appropriate parking spot. Shunting tends to be more about logistics, making room for incoming trains so that a railyard can fit as many as possible into the shunting area.

Why is metered energy data important in instances of stabling and shunting?

It’s important to use metered energy data for billing these types of tasks because it makes a huge difference in both cost and energy conservation. After a long day of transporting passengers and cargo, trains must be cleaned up. For this to happen, the train must spend the night at the railyard. When a train parks in the railyard, a cleaning crew comes on board and often leaves the pantograph up (the cable-like device that attaches the train to the power line.) If the cleaning crew leaves all of the doors open, blasts the heat on full and turns on all the lights, then of course, train companies will lose far more energy and money than they would if they were more concerned about turning things off and saving energy. Much like the way we conserve energy in our homes. By turning off the heat and the lights when they are not needed, energy is saved and the monthly bill is significantly reduced.

The old standard is to bill train companies by the hour. Since the energy isn’t metered, there is no incentive to save power. However, if and when companies are billed by metered data, then the railway undertakings can look at how much they have used for stabling and how much they have used for shunting each month and each week. From there, they can see how much energy was used in each specific train run. This information allows companies to pinpoint exact dates and times where excessive amounts of energy were used and to take action from there. A good example would be identifying who was working at the time of excessive energy use and talking with those employees about making the necessary changes. Therefore, using energy metering gives both the incentive to alter energy consumption as well as the methods for identifying patterns and recognizing where too much energy is being used.

What exactly does the Erex IT system do to improve energy metering?

Before, energy usage was estimated for many countries. Thanks to Erex IT system, all countries in Europe can get on board and start using metered values instead of estimated values. This is the core of Erex system, currently used by Eress partners and testing ones. The new shunting and stabling feature increases the incentives and control for train companies and infrastructure managers. Eress partners can retrieve reports from Erex system that specify exactly how much energy they have used for shunting and how much they have used for stabling. It’s not like receiving a monthly power bill that only provides a single amount reflecting how much energy was consumed. Eress partners actually receive a detailed report that makes it a lot easier for them to identify where they are using too much energy and to make adjustments from there.

With the revolution of energy settlement for railway operations across Europe, Erex IT system provides a practical and effective solution that our partners can’t help but get behind.