High voltage takes center stage in this brand new season of Hitachi Energy's Power Pulse podcast. We promise to bring you great content from the brightest minds in the business. We'll discuss challenges, opportunities, and all the hot topics any high voltage enthusiasts or anyone interested in sustainability for that matter, is sure to enjoy. Welcome back to the second special episode of the Power Pulse podcast.
I'm your host, Bárbara Freitas-Daniels, and joining me today are Dr. Markus Heimbach and Dr. Christian Ohler. They are here to let you in on some exciting news. We told you our economic roadmap was on track. Well, today is the day you learn exactly what we meant. Hello! Welcome to another episode of the Power Pulse podcast. We have a very special episode in store for you today. Joining me today I've got Markus Heimbach and Christian Ohler. Thank you so much for joining me again today.
It's the second time you're on the podcast, so thank you for making the time. And if you'll allow me, Markus, I have a question for you. When you were last here, you told us you were about to take on Amstel Gold. How did that go? I finished it successfully. Oh. Good job. Well done. It was a very nice experience and I liked it very much. It was tough, but in the end of the day, I finished and that is all what we wanted. Going back next year? Sure. Oh, good. Christian, how about you?
Are you a cyclist? Do you enjoy cycling at all? Not really. No. Cycling is probably the one sport I really hate. I never told to Markus. I do know the one thing you do have in common is your interest in switchgear. So if you don't mind, let's jump right into it. We are here on occasion of CIGRE. Christian, would you mind telling us a little bit about CIGRE? What is it about? I mean, CIGRE, first of all, is an organization.
So it's really the expert organization where the professionals that work inside high voltage domain gather and deal with their matters. But it's probably more important if people talk about the CIGRE, they are talking about the event that happens every two years in Paris. Nice to go to Paris, which is a combination of an expert conference and exhibition by vendors and like a fair and the special thing about the conference, it's really about interaction.
So on a normal conference, you write your paper, then you present your paper and people ask questions. But at CIGRE, you write a paper and you don't present the paper. But actually people present questions to the papers that have been submitted before. And then people ask questions about the questions. So it has a deeply interactive character. And for me, I like it a lot because it shows the spirit of this industry to jointly solve problems.
Whatever organization you come from, utility or a vendor. But there’s kind of the spirit that we jointly try to solve the problems that are existing in the power system. All right. So it's all about innovation. It's about innovation. And this is the second in this exhibition. You typically really see the new things that are coming out. And there's a lot of very interesting things to see Okay. So if it's all about innovation, is there anything you'd like to share with us, Markus? Yes.
After we launched two years ago at the CIGRE event first SF6-free dead tank breaker, or gas insulated switchgear at the 420 kV level. We are now happy that we, and proud, that we can present one step more. We are announcing at the CIGRE, the launch of the first fully tested SF6-free 550 kV GIS (gas insulated switchgear) and dead tank breaker. Okay, wow. This is a milestone in the industry. It shows that our concept is scalable.
We can reach the highest voltage levels and on the other hand, we can keep the same footprint. In addition, we are as well launching the first SF6-free live tank breaker in the world for 420 kV. And we will show both of the breakers at the CIGRE event and also at the exhibition. Oh wow. You heard it here first. Another world first for Hitachi Energy. And I can tell you, you're both very proud of this achievement as you should be, as we all should be.
Christian, would you mind telling us a little bit more about these breakers, what they're about, what they do? Sure, sure. The live tank breaker is probably the most common types in our network. So this is when you have air insulated substations. So you have a lot of space and you put the individual components in this space. And the breaker is the most powerful of these components.
So for the first time you will have really for the top voltage level that exist in transmission grid 420 kilovolt in most countries, we will have SF6-free live tank breakers to interrupt short circuit currents in air insulated switchgears. Then the metal enclosed versions, so the dead tank breaker, mainly targeted at United States and the gas insulated switchgear (GIS) 550 kilovolt, these are really the highest ever voltages anybody has done free of SF6.
So if you look globally where most of the SF6 is stored and where we can achieve this SF6-free breakers, the biggest effect in removing SF6 from the power system. Okay, so you've just touched on it a little bit, but Markus can you tell us a little bit more about where we can use these breakers in terms of geography? So North America might have different needs to China let's say. So we're targeting different markets globally, is that right? Correct.
When you look into the 420 kV level where we had two years ago, the gas insulated switchgear, and today we have the live tank breaker. This is the dominant transmission network in Europe. So the main power on the AC network is transported through the 420 kV network. This corresponds a little bit for example in US with this 362 kV network, which is quite similar, with the similar requirements to the equipment.
While the 550 kV network is strong in the US, especially on the East Coast and the West Coast, it is all over China and this as well, for example, in Brazil as big markets. Okay. 420 kV or 380 kVs as well, are very strong in the Middle East or in Saudi Arabia. They're quite a broad offering. Good. Christian, are these two breakers based on the same technology? Yes and no. Okay. And more yes than no. Go on, you’ll have to explain. But first for the yes, I mean both are gas circuit breakers.
So they use the same type of technology we are used to from SF6. And which gives – I would say – this very gentle interruption behavior we are used to from gas circuit breakers. So when you interrupt the current, it's kind of done in a way that will not put any risk on neighboring equipment. So a smooth way to interrupt those currents. So yes, in that regard. So both are based on carbon dioxide-oxygen mixtures as the base mixture.
But then there is the one difference which is that in the metal enclosed breaker we actually add a few percent of C4-fluoronitrile. So kind of a high performance special gas to the carbon dioxide and the oxygen. Because only by adding this we keep the size of the SF6 equipment. So it's a very tiny spicy spice added, but has a very important function to be able to keep the size of the equipment as it is currently.
Right. So, Markus, could you tell us in more detail why we need different gas mixtures? Yes, in the air insulated switchgear, which, as Christian explains, you have a lot of space. You have as well meters to insulate the voltage while in the gas insulated switchgear, space is usually the constraints you have. You need to insulate the voltage within centimeters and in order to be able and capable to insulate this voltage within centimeters, you need to have a higher pressure and a better gas.
All gases which are existing in nature are in principle bad insulators. So in order to keep the performance of SF6 with the same reliability margins, or even better reliability margins and stay in within the same space of footprint, we are adding 3.5% C4 nitriles. Right. And in order to do that, we are then basically as he’s saying, we are doping it or we are putting spice into it. And this is then helping to keep really the, the dimensions of the switchgear.
Okay. So this seems like a really high-tech piece, this C4FN. Christian, do you want to tell us a little bit more about this eco-efficient gas? Sure, sure. C4-fluoronitrile is a synthetic gas. So it's a manmade gas, something that doesn't exist in nature. But for such a gas, it's as good for nature as it can be. Or let's say, it's in harmony with nature in many aspects. Because when I hear F-gas, I think, oh, not good, right? But are all F-gasses the same? No. No, they are not the same.
I think we really have to consider the life cycle of these gases. Of course, first this gas is enclosed in a switchgear. So most of the time nobody comes close to it and it's not going in any way to nature. But if that happens or in the case there is a small leakage or there is some, some mishap and it would actually leave the equipment, it has a lot of very beautiful properties.
So for example, it cannot mix with water, cannot accumulate in any grass or lake or anything because it will simply evaporate. It's always a gas. And if it's not a gas, it is very quickly evaporating and then it will distribute in the atmosphere.
And after a long time, 20, 30 years, there will be reaction in the upper layer of the atmosphere where the sun is extremely intensive and there are certain radical particles, and they will create the decay of this molecule, and it will end up in a salt that already exists in nature. So even though it's a manmade synthetic molecule, its final state of life, is something that already exists in nature.
So this is why I tend to say it's actually very much in harmony with nature, even though it's manmade. Okay, so you decided to invest in this specific technology. If I may ask, I'm just very curious as to why you didn't decide to go for vacuum technology, for example? When we started the whole plan, how to build the portfolio, because also in the beginning you need to know what is the whole portfolio? What is your vision about the portfolio?
How are you able to cover 100 kilovolts up to 1000 kilovolts? So we wanted to have a scalable portfolio and a scalable technology. And when you have gas insulation, you can somehow linearly increase with the distance, the withstand voltage. So if you have 1000 kV, you need to build principle ten times larger than 100 kV. It's a little bit different, but this is the basic principle behind.
Vacuum though, and I have quite some experience – professional experience in my past on the medium voltage side with a vacuum where it is a perfect interruption. Vacuum, so has the disadvantage that it's saturating with the voltage and the distance. So you cannot just increase the distance and then you have a better withstand voltage behavior. And on top of it, the behavior of vacuum is much more statistical than the gas behavior.
And when you then come to the limits of the insulation level, the limits where you then can withstand the voltage, this statistical behavior will end up in unreliability. There as well, other concepts on top of the vacuum, or together with the vacuum, which are using technical air as then the main insulation. But here you have as well the disadvantage what we explained before, when you go into gas insulated switchgear.
When you want to have a gas insulated switchgear, usually the space is your main constraint. And in order to keep the same space, the same dimensions, the same footprint as we have with SF6. You have to increase the pressure as we do with our EconiQ but you have as well to have a better gas. You are not able to cope with a deficiency of technical error in insulation within the same dimensions and within the same footprint.
And in the end of the day is then the question if you use then technical air for insulating, why don't you go directly for an air insulated switchgear. Right. So that's the reason why we are embarking on the C4 concept, I’m meaning on the F-gas concept for the gas insulated for the metal enclosed breakers. While in the live tank breakers you have enough dimensions. We can stay with the carbon dioxide. And because this is determined by the air outside. So more or less we cannot compromise.
We cannot compromise on reliability. So we don't cut away any margin of safety or anything. We cannot compromise on the size of the equipment because it's the essence of this equipment to be small, because people want it to be small, to use the minimum amount of space. And also, as Markus explained, the vacuum circuit breaker has definitely a lot of merits in the medium voltage space. Maybe up to 72 kV.
It can push a little bit, but it simply doesn't have the scaling property that allow us to cover all the portfolio and remove the SF6, where there is most of it in the high end. Right. So regulators have been paying a lot of attention to this F-gas that we've just been discussing. I know I've read myself, so recently, I know the EU passed a regulation on this specifically in relation to high voltage. I've read it a few times.
It's not an easy read, I do remember, I think you'll agree, right, it's not an easy read is it? There are some exemptions in there. Would you like to comment on how this eco-efficient portfolio matches what the EU has approved as the safe way to go, as the right way to go for a sustainable world? I agree it's not an easy read, so it's a complex legislation. But for those who have followed it, it's definition from the very beginning, it's now very clear.
And actually we welcome this regulation because it sets a clear hierarchy of principles. And the first principle is that technical specification comes first. So customers specify the technical needs for their equipment. And the safe operation of power grid is really the first principle. And then the second principle is to use as little or create as little global warming as possible. So to reduce the usage of fluorinated gases, because they contribute when they escape to the global warming.
And this is the clear second to this technical principle. And then it creates different classes. So those class that has no fluorinated gas at all, where for example a live tank breaker would fall because, as Markus explained, we don't need fluorinated gases in the live tank breaker. But then there's also in the legislation, the second category, global warming potential up to 1000. And in our case, EconiQ solution is around 400.
So it's in the second class where due to the technical needs, our solution fits perfectly. Because if you just put the same technical specification that you have in SF6, we can fulfill it free of SF6. So this is perfectly foreseen, this situation in the legislation. And then there is a second exemption, as some people call it, which is the legislation clearly says. In the end, we need to consider the total life cycle assessment. So the gas is only one component out of many.
And what matters in the end is the carbon footprint of the complete product. And again, the EconiQ products that we do are made to have the lowest possible carbon footprint if you take them as a complete product, because they keep the size of the equipment, so they don't push the carbon footprint of the gas into use of more materials. They stay with the same amount of materials and have a small remaining carbon footprint of the gas, but still they reduce it by a factor of 100.
So for all practical purposes they take out the carbon footprint of the SF6. Okay, so it seems like it's a pretty future-proof portfolio. It is. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Oh good. So how are your customers adopting this? Have they shown interest? What's the external world telling you? Yeah, we started a couple of years back already with sub transmission, as we call it. So the 145 kV, 123 kV live tank breaker, EconiQ live tank breaker SF6-free and we have basically reference all over the world.
It has taken a bit of time in the beginning, but now it's speeding up and taking the lion's share of our orders received in that voltage level. When we come to the dead tank breaker, so we'll start selling the dead tank breakers 12 months back in the United States. It's a main application of this kind of breaker, and we have already booked more than 200 breakers within one year. And we see really the acceleration in the adoption of the principles from the customers all over the United States.
Because also in the United States, we will have more and more pressure and from the regulation to phase out SF6. And then when it comes to the gas insulated switchgear, we have seen that in the beginning the adoption was a bit slow. We have then started this pilot, but what I can say, and that is really amazing, is that in 2024 we will book more orders in our main gas insulated switchgear here in Switzerland, with EconiQ, meaning SF6-free than with our traditional portfolio SF6.
This is very exciting for us and this is as well giving a lot of hope because also the SF6 and we are doing it all because it’s contributing quite significantly to global warming. And this is then helping really to support the energy transition. Right. That was very beautifully put. Thank you very much, Markus and Christian for coming in today and chatting with me about the eco-efficient portfolio and the innovation that you're bringing to the industry and to the world.
It's been wonderful learning more about it. And I guess all that's left to say is, see you in Paris. And that's it for today. We'll be back soon with some more great content. But before you go, remember to give us a follow so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for tuning in. See you soon! This episode was brought to you by Hitachi Energy, created, written, and hosted by Bárbara Freitas-Daniels. Content and script writing by Domenico Menduni.
Guest speakers Dr. Markus Heimbach and Dr. Christian Ohler. Produced and edited by Creative Chimps.