Switchgear bays are found at substations and help dispatch or cut electrical power in case of a problem on the grid. Together, German’s specialty chemicals leader Evonik and UK’s Omexom, an Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) company, recently ordered a total of 18 g³ GIS bays.
Evonik signed a contract for 10 F35-145kV g³ GIS bays for its Marl Chemical Park in western Germany. Commissioning is estimated for June 2021.
Omexom, meanwhile, selected GE as its 132 kV GIS supplier for an industrial customer’s waste plant in the UK. The contract for eight 145 kV GIS bays using g³ was signed in March, with commissioning estimated for September 2021.
Slashing CO₂ emissions by 99%
The innovative products feature the same high performance and reliability as SF₆ equipment but have a gas mass with more than a 99% reduced CO₂ equivalent value. More importantly, life-cycle assessments (LCAs) have shown that g³ products do not cause pollution transfers to other environmental indicators.
Jürgen Bücker, head of regulation management energy networks at Evonik said g³ was a “natural choice” for the company. “Not only do the g³ products offer us the same reliability and ease of handling as our previous SF₆ equipment,” he said, “they will go a long way in helping us reach our goal of halving our absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.”
With these two industrial orders, GE has now sold more than 100 g³ GIS bays since launching g³ on the market in 2016. Eighteen transmission and distribution utilities have installed g³ equipment at a total of 26 sites across Europe.
With the largest 145 kV GIS SF₆-free installed base, g³ is the leading SF₆-free solution for high-voltage equipment. SF₆ is estimated to contribute 23,500 times more emissions than CO₂, if leaked, and can remain in the atmosphere for up to 3,200 years.