Reactive Energy Management in Multimodal Mass Transportation Networks: Metro de Medellín Case Study

Multimodal electric transport systems demand substantial active and reactive energy, making power-quality management essential for ensuring efficient and reliable operation. This paper analyses reactive-energy transport in mass-transit networks and introduces a unified current-based framework that enables a consistent interpretation of the conventional power factor under harmonic distortion, fundamental unbalance, and short-term load fluctuation, without modifying its original definition. The framework enables a consistent assessment of compensation needs, independent of billing schemes, and is aligned with the way modern compensation equipment is specified and controlled. Applied to the Metro de Medellín system, field measurements and digital simulations show that traditional reactive-energy limits fail to distinguish between harmful and beneficial operating conditions, leading to disproportionate charges under the former Colombian regulation. Beyond this case, the proposed framework is directly applicable to other electric-mobility systems—including railways, trams, trolleybuses, and electric-bus networks—providing clearer technical signals for compensation planning and offering a comprehensive basis for future regulatory approaches that integrate multiple power-quality phenomena.