>>1987487>The trains, substations, switchgear/protection gear, and most importantly all the labour and time to swap things is your expensive partYou end up getting rid of 2/3 or more of your substation sites and switchgear by going from 1.5kV to 9kV. The trains will be more of an issue, but fleets are renewed/ upgraded on a semi-regularly basis.
In addition, the long-term costs decrease by a lot. Transmission efficiency increases by 6% and the volume of copper wire needed decreases by 70%.
There are projected savings of 2GWH/100km annually. This is at the same power specifications as the replaced 1.5kV lines.
