IEC TS 63498:2026 ED1

Railway applications - System energy efficiency

Scope

IEC TS 63498:2026 harmonizes the requirements and criteria for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and specifies KPIs of energy efficiency for entire electric railway system and its subsystems such as trains, contact lines, substations, both single and combined, clarifying the boundaries to be considered. This document applies to entire electric railway systems including non-traction loads.
The purposes are:
a) to determine and to trace the energy efficiency for a specific railway system;
b) to enable comparability between the different electric railway systems (on overall system level) by means of harmonized KPIs and system boundaries concerning energy efficiency;
c) to overview the characteristics of the electric railway system on an overall level with the structure of the electric railway system (including type, hierarchy and number of substations) and the KPIs (including the ranking) for transportation quality;
d) identification of the key impacts for energy efficiency as there are system flexibility, system functions and system features as basic characteristics for the entire electric railway system;
e) definition of harmonized processes and procedures for the simulation or calculation and validation of the system specific energy consumption (including energy feedback);
f) presenting the related and referenced standards and regulations for the electric railway system and its subsystems and their possible contribution to the overall target of the energy efficiency.