Hyundai Rotem's new braking technology acquires green certification

Hyundai Rotem, a South Korean railway rolling stock supplier under Hyundai Motor Group, acquired a green certification for its zero-speed regenerative braking of propulsion control device from the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), a South Korean ESG agency.

KIAT considers technology as green if it would minimize greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions through energy and resource saving and efficiency in the entire process of social and economic activities.

Zero-speed regenerative braking is an eco-friendly technology that continuously uses regenerative electricity until the time when the train stops, and Hyundai Rotem completed patent registration last year.

Hyundai applied the technology to 214 trains on Seoul Subway Line 2 that were delivered in 2019.

The train can save 917 MWh of electricity per year compared to conventional ones. This is equivalent to planting more than 60,000 pine trees per year.

 "We will apply the zero-speed regenerative braking to high-speed GTX-A trains to verify the technology during the test-run period," said an official of Hyundai, adding his company will continue to focus on R&D on eco-friendly railway technology.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com