Public procurement has begun for the design and build of the energy subsystem for the 870km high-speed Rail Baltica project connecting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which will be the largest railway electrification project in the world.
The contract will involve the deployment of an energy subsystem in a consolidated way from Estonian capital Tallinn through Latvia to the Lithuania-Poland border and then between Lithuanian cities of Kaunus and Vilnius. This will include key components such as traction power substations, high voltage connection points between these substations and public electrical grids, an overhead contact system, an energy control command system and other components directly linked to the energy subsystem.
The 870km of double track will require over 2,000km of catenary systems, the installation of 50,000 masts and around 4,350t of copper materials. The electricity consumed by Rail Baltica will be in the range of 900GW/h annually, an estimated 3% increase on the national consumption of each of the Baltic States.
The electrification will also involve the implementation of static frequency converters (SFC) to provide flexible and efficient integration between the different countries. The use of SFC on a project of this size is unprecedented.
The procurement will unfold in two stages and is expected to conclude by the end of 2023. The multi-national joint venture RB Rail AS is overseeing the project and understands the need to address the extra level of complexity that comes with a cross-border project and the differing legislations between the states.
A joint venture of DB Engineering & Consulting GmbH, IDOM Consulting, Engineering, Architecture, S.A.U., Italferr S.p.A. has previously been announced as the engineering service provider for the energy subsystem deployment.
RB Rail AS head of systems and operation Jean-Marc Bedmar said: “We consider this a truly historical achievement for the Rail Baltica Global Project and strong evidence of the determination of the Baltic States to implement this project in a united way. This is the first time when procurement of such scope and scale is organized across three countries in Europe with a goal to provide a single electrification system with the same operational maintenance rules and interoperability requirements across several countries.
“Proceeding with a major cross-border railway electrification project across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and interconnected with Poland, requires establishing a tight cooperation between governmental authorities, strong involvement of electricity transmission systems operators and electricity suppliers – allowing to ultimately maximize the Rail Baltica contribution to EU energy and transport policies, the Green Deal as well as national decarbonization plans.”
RB Rail AS chief technical officer Marc-Philippe El Beze said: “In the present geopolitical situation, joining forces is more important than ever. And this procurement is a proof of building maturity of both the Rail Baltica project, but also the EU policies for cross-border strategic project delivery.
“By taking these decisive steps towards the delivery of the Rail Baltica energy subsystem, the Rail Baltica Global Project and our energy sector partners are getting closer to delivery of an infrastructure fully fitted with state-of-art electric traction technology, highly efficient and with minimized environmental impact – paving the way to large scale electrical transport operation by the end of the decade. We are truly proud of this achievement and looking forward to a successful procurement process and next steps.”
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