• Obtain an accurate basis for billing
• Get more transparency on energy consumption in order to identify and assess energy saving measures

Billing

The whole energy debiting process can be put on a more costs-by-cause oriented basis.

LCC guarantees

The validity of LCC guarantees given by manufacturers can be confirmed or disproven by means of energy meters.

Acceptance

If energy meters are not needed for billing purposes, operators tend to be reluctant to invest into equipment not offering any obvious added value. SNCF who operates in market not yet liberalised is sceptical about the benefits of on-board energy measurement.

Technological

Presently no standard exists.

Retrofitting

Old vehicles often require tailored solutions.

Costs

Investment and maintenance costs can be high if a combination with refurbishment measures is not possible or unrealistic.

Management & Organisation

If energy meters are introduced only as a feature in new stock and no refitting is carried out, the fleet-wide roll-out may take several decades (~ 40 years). Experience from DB shows that great parts of the stock can be equipped with energy meters within two or three years, if old stock is refurbished.

Standardisation and interoperability

The different power supply systems may require corresponding interoperability efforts in some fields. A technological standardisation on a European level could accelerate technological development, create scale effects and improve planning reliability of manufacturers. Although a UIC standard is not a crucial prerequisite for introducing energy meters, common development efforts may be beneficial especially for small operators. However, a lengthy standardisation process could considerably delay the roll-out of energy meters.

Economic

Equip all new purchased trains with energy meters and use the already equipped part of the fleet to supply databases for improved calculations.

Management & Organisation

Be able to show the benefits from using energy meters and do not mix billing and energy saving targets. Furthermore, it has to be clearly defined, which data (e.g. measurement time intervals, train position, load situation ...) are needed to generate data basis for different saving measures.

Acceptance

The challenge of data reliability and automatic processing of data has to be tackled.

The TEMA project at DB AG (TEMA=Traktions-Energie Messung und Abrechnung)

In 2000 DB Energie tested the installation of energy meters in several trains as well as data transmission and evaluation in the TEMA project. The meters measure both energy intake and recuperation energy. At DB AG, energy metering is seen as an essential prerequisite for determining the influencing factors for energy consumption and monitoring the success of energy saving measures.

Within the project different types of measuring devices tailored to individual vehicle series were installed and tested. The devices have a minimum accuracy of 2%. The system calculates and records 15 min consumption profiles. Remote reading via GSM is implemented.

Following the projects, energy meters have now been incorporated into the specifications of new stock. A roll-out into the DB fleet is currently being realised. DB AG plans to introduce exact energy billing based on energy metering in 2003. Since energy meters are not a standard feature yet and competitors may continue operating stock not equipped with meters, billing based on metering is only offered as an option besides conventional billing.