With 400 kilometers of track, 275 stations, and 940 million passengers a year the London Underground is one of the biggest and busiest metros in the world. At peak hours more than 500 trains run at any one time. An ABB energy management system is controlling this vast and complex traction system.
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Everyday the London Underground transports some three million passengers along 12 lines and between 275 stations, each of which has its own substation to power the elevators and lighting and provide motive power for the hundreds of trains that traffic the network at any one time.
Controlling and managing the power distribution system of this vast and complex transport network is an ABB Network Manager (formerly SPIDER) energy management system. It went online in August 2004 having replaced no less than five supervisory control and data (SCADA) systems supplied by various vendors.
ABB performed the switchover from the old multi-vendor systems to the new Network Manager solution without disrupting the normal train schedules. Installation work was carried out during a short cleaning and maintenance time window each night, with commissioning taking place in phases to ensure that passengers would not be stranded or delayed by shutdowns.
As with all ABB Network Manager solutions, the one for London Underground is designed to integrate future system evolution and migrations.
ABB is the world leader in SCADA energy management systems with more than 5,000 installations worldwide.