SF6 in Power Engineering
- A healthy atmosphere is important to us
- Advantages SF6
- Data and Facts about SF6
The human race is growing - and its energy demands are growing with it. What we now need are long-term concepts that will guarantee a supply of electrical energy for future generations, as well as being environmentally compatible and conserving the available resources. After all, our lives are based on an ecologically acceptable supply of electricity, which is irreplaceable.
Nowadays, we can use high-performance switchgear with minimized emissions to supply energy. Sulphur hexafluoride - abbreviated to SF6 - has become an indispensable component in these energy concepts, used as an insulating and arcquencing gas.
- High insulating and switching capacity
- Devices and systems with compact dimensions
- Technically efficient power supply systems
- Low susceptibility to faults, low failure probability
- Long service life of the switchgear
- Power supply with low energy losses within the supply system
- Non-combustible, non-toxic gas
SF6 switchgear is characterised by maximum dependability, safe operation and low operating costs. This is why we have been using SF6 in our switchgear for more than 40 years now. In the meantime, the leakage rate has been reduced to such an extent that there is hardly any need to top up the gas.
Although SF6 has a life of approximately 3200 years in the atmosphere, the pertinent extrapolations indicate that it only accounts for around 0.06 % of global greenhouse effect - compared with CO2 with its 60 % share. In addition to this, switchgear production only uses about half of the total quantity of SF6 produced and only accounts for 1/3 of the annual emission. Apart from this, in Kyoto, SF6 was referred to as one of the six gases that make the lowest contribution to the greenhouse effect with its 0.06 % share.
We are making every effort to reduce the SF6 emissions still further. We have been able to half the leakage rate in our new generation of SF6 switchgear, reducing the annual rate to around 0.5 %. The volume of gas has also been reduced by around 50 % over the last few years.