The fundamentals of current interruption in SF6 and its alternatives

Summary

SF6 has high Global Warming Potential (GWP) and long lifetime in the atmosphere, which makes it highly desirable to replace SF6 in electric power equipment with environmentally friendly solutions.
In the recent years SF6 alternative solutions for switching applications in transmission and distribution (T&D) have been identified using gas circuit breakers (Gas CB) with alternative gases or vacuum circuit breakers (VCB). The present webinar will focus on the physical processes relevant to current interruption in HV Gas CB at the zero crossing of the current, i.e. at «current zero» (CZ), using alternative gases as interruption medium.
The relevant physical processes will be discussed and relevant parameters of SF6 and alternative gases/mixtures are compared.
Conclusions on the switching performance from such parameter comparison will be drawn and compared to experimental results from literature. Some consequences for the design of HV Gas CB will be discussed.
This work was prepared within the «gas circle» of the «Current Zero Club» (CZC, http://currentzeroclub.org/) and will be presented by representatives of the organization.

Additional informations

Video

Speakers

SMEETS, SEEGER, Franck, Yan

Keywords

High voltage equipment, switching, circuit breaker, current interruption, electric arc, SF6, SF6 alternative gases, fluoronitriles, global warming reduction, plasma physics.