Wiener Linien has selected Ingeteam to provide an energy recovery system that will allow the company to lower its CO² emissions and cut its energy bill.

The system will be installed on the substation near Hardeggasse station on the U2 Line and will be transparent to the existing system. The energy recovered will be used by the operator internally.

In 2015, Wiener Linien ridership stood at 939 million passengers. On average, some 2.5 million passengers use the Wiener Linien network underground, bus and tram lines every year.

With the aim of reducing energy consumption in mind, the Ingeteam Ingeber technology was selected for its ability to recover between 10% to 30% of railway traction energy.

After four years of investigation by the Ingeteam Traction Division and a €3m investment, the company has developed a system to convert braking heat into electrical energy to be returned to the power grid.

This system is ideal for sub-urban trains, trams and metros, given the fact that these are all required to make many stops, which is precisely when the Ingeber recovers the heat energy. These systems have been installed in the Bilbao Metro, a further three in Bielefeld (Germany) and another in Malaga, for ADIF.

INGETEAM recently won a contract in Barcelona to install this technology.