OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2008. Under Russian Railways’ Energy Strategy, the Company expects to reduce energy consumption on the transportation side by at least 30% between 2008 and 2020, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

In particular, the unit of energy will fall by 6-8% in electric locomotives and by 9-12% in diesel locomotives despite a projected growth in traffic using both types of traction of 38% compared to 2007.

At the beginning of 2008, the Company started introducing a new warm-up system in diesel locomotives which does away with the need to have the engine idling. This will lead to fuel savings of 20% in winter and up to 10-15% in other seasons. Russian Railways will install this system in about 2,400 locomotives by 2011.

Work is continuing to equip the diesel fleet with onboard sets of fuel gauges and equipment to record the parameters of locomotives, which by providing a timely diagnosis of the state of locomotives will save up to 5% of diesel fuel.

Particular attention is being focused on developing new fuel-efficient locomotives. This year, the Kolomna Machine-Building Plant will produce a pilot batch of TEP70BS passenger locomotives with an electronic fuel injection system which saves up to 3% in fuel.

Another technical solution that will achieve considerable fuel savings is the dual-diesel shunting locomotive. The first such Russian locomotive is now being assembled at the Yaroslavl Electric Locomotive Plant according to a design by the All-Russian Scientific Research and Design Institute of Technology. Preliminary calculations show that the use of such locomotives will achieve up to 10% savings in diesel fuel.

A major focus of reducing the non-productive consumption of energy by locomotives using electric traction, which accounts for 85% of the total transport of Russian Railways, is the introduction of automatic trains. More than 2,600 freight and passenger locomotives have been equipped with the Avtomashinist system to date, which reduces electricity to 1.8%.

Saving fuel will also reduce the impact on the environment. Reducing the energy emissions in locomotives will cut harmful emissions to 38,300 tons per year by 2020.