One method of strengthening low frequency AC railway grids is to upgrade Booster Transformer (BT) catenary systems, to Auto Transformer (AT) catenary systems. An AT catenary system has lower equivalent impedance compared to a BT system. Thus, an upgrade makes the existing converter stations electrically closer.

Converter stations may have different types of Rotary Frequency Converters (RFCs) installed in them, and it is not well explored how different RFCs behaves and interact during and after a large disturbance.

Using the Anderson-Fouad model of synchronous machines to describe the dynamics of RFCs, several case studies have been performed through numerical simulations. The studies investigate the interactions within and between converter stations constituted with different RFC types, for BT as well AT catenary systems.

The numerical studies reveal that replacing BT with AT catenary systems, results in a more oscillatory system behaviour. This is seen for example in the power oscillations between and inside converter stations, after fault clearance.