Currently, power conversion system which converts AC to DC Power is applied in domestic urban railway. The diode rectifier is used in most of them. However the diode rectifier can not control the output voltage and can not regenerate power as well. On the other hand, PWM (pulse width modulation) converter using IGBT (isolated gate bipolar transistor) can control output voltage, allowing it to reduce the output voltage drop. Moreover the Bi-directional conduction regenerates power which does not require additional device for power regeneration control. This paper compared the simulation results for the DC power supply system on both the diode rectifier and the PWM converter. Under the same load condition, simulation circuit for each power supply system was constructed with the PSIM (performance simulation and modeling tool) software. The load condition was set according to the resistance value of the currently operating impedance of light rail line, and the line impedance was set according to the distance of each substations. The train was set using a passive resistor. PI (proportional integral) controller was applied to regulate the output voltage. PSIM simulation was conducted to verify that the PWM Converter was more efficient than the diode rectifier in DC Traction power supply system.
