Replacing SF 6 in Electrical Gas-Insulated Switchgear: Technological Alternatives and Potential Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Savings in an EU-28 Perspective

Pieter Billen, Ben Maes, Macarena Larrain and Johan Braet
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Pieter Billen: Intelligence in Processes, Advanced Catalysts & Solvents (iPRACS), Faculty of Applied Engineering, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium
Ben Maes: Energy and Materials in Infrastructure and Buildings (EMIB), Faculty of Applied Engineering, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium
Macarena Larrain: Intelligence in Processes, Advanced Catalysts & Solvents (iPRACS), Faculty of Applied Engineering, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium
Johan Braet: Department of Engineering Management, Faculty of Business & Economics, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: To date, atmospheric concentrations of sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) are the most potent among the greenhouse gases identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and are still rising. In the EU-28, SF 6 has been banned from several applications, however, an important exception is gas-insulated electrical switchgear (GIS) for which cost-effective and environmentally sound alternatives were unavailable when the F-Gas regulation was last revised in 2014. To date, after some recent innovations, we argue that the phasing out of SF 6 could spur the accelerated development of alternatives with a lower carbon footprint. In the EU-28, the SF 6 amount in switchgear is unclear. In this paper, we estimated the SF 6 amount to be between 10,800 and 24,700 t (with a mode at 12,700 t) in 2017, resulting in 68 to 140 t of annual emissions from operational leakage only, corresponding to 1.6 to 3.3 Mt of CO 2 -eq. We additionally calculated the potential greenhouse gas savings over the lifecycle of one exemplary 145 kV gas-insulated switchgear bay upon replacing SF 6 by decafluoro-2-methylbutan-3-one (C5-FK) and heptafluoro-2-methylpropanenitrile (C4-FN) mixtures. Projecting these results over the EU-28, a phase-out scenario starting from 2020 onwards could reduce the carbon footprint by a median of 14 Mt of CO 2 -eq, over a period of 50 years. Extrapolation to medium voltage could be assumed to be of a similar magnitude.

Keywords: carbon footprint assessment; electrical switchgear; sulfur hexafluoride; phase-out; transmission; distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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