National Grid futureproofs its assets with greener insulating gas

As part of a pilot project, insulating gas SF6 has been replaced with an alternative greener gas in existing equipment

National Grid has partnered with Hitachi Energy in a pilot project to replace insulating sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) gas with an alternative greener gas in one of the company’s substations in Kent.

SF6 is gas that is used to prevent outages and keep the transmission network safe and reliable.

The new solution uses a fluoronitrile-based gas mixture and reduces the carbon footprint during the total lifecycle of the existing equipment.

The pilot project forms part of National Grid’s ambition to halve its SF6 emissions by 2030, by eliminating nearly six tonnes of SF6 emissions.

That is equivalent to taking more than 100,000 cars off the road.

Chris Bennett, Acting President of National Grid Electricity Transmission, said: Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time and this new transformational green technology will help achieve wide-scale decarbonisation on our electricity transmission network.”

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