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How the high-voltage industry is tackling its biggest challenges

We live in a world where energy and electricity are indispensable to daily life. High-voltage equipment and power quality products serve as fundamental pillars of our modern infrastructure. High-voltage not only facilitates the transmission of electricity across vast distances but also plays an essential role in ensuring that power is distributed efficiently and reliably to meet the growing needs of urban and rural areas alike. Power quality products assure the grid is stable and fulfills strict regulatory requirements no matter how electricity is generated and consumed. Today, our industry is at a pivotal moment as we transition to a more electrified world with the rise of clean technologies, electric vehicles, and the push for renewable energy integration: the demand for robust, reliable, and eco-efficient power grids is greater than ever.

This demand comes with a set of formidable challenges, from growing electrical power needs and energy security concerns to the environmental impact of existing solutions. As the industry grapples with these issues, it is also confronted by a rapidly changing regulatory landscape and the necessity to adapt or even develop groundbreaking and transformative innovation.

This blog will delve deeper into the key high-voltage challenges, exploring how the sector is addressing multifaceted socio-economic and environmental problems by leveraging technological innovation with a strong commitment to sustainability. If you’re interested in learning more, I explore this topic in greater detail in the latest Power Pulse episode: Transforming challenges into opportunities in the high-voltage industry.

Understanding the key challenges

The high-voltage industry is essential for delivering electricity to millions of homes and businesses, serving as a backbone for modern infrastructure. However, there are multiple challenges that the industry faces today that threaten its availability, reliability, and more importantly, sustainability.

Many power grids in use today were designed for a different era and are challenged to accommodate the complexities introduced by the ever increasing integration of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar as well as by the rapidly changing consumption profile driven by the growing electricity demand for data centers, eMobility, and other non-traditional consumers. Moreover, the high-voltage industry faces mounting pressure to reduce its environmental impact, as traditional equipment operates on sulfur hexafluoride, or more commonly known as SF₆, contributes to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The high-voltage industry is at a critical juncture, facing challenges that require immediate attention and innovative solutions:

1. Grid infrastructure built for historically grown power systems
Aging infrastructure that is not adapted to deal with the changing generation and consumption pattern can lead to poor power quality, frequent outages, reduced availability, increased maintenance costs, and even safety hazards that we simply cannot overlook. Traditional power system designs and equipment may not be equipped to handle the current generation and load pattern as well as the effective integration of renewables.  As the demand for electricity continues to grow, an outdated grid will struggle to cope.

2. Environmental concerns in high-voltage and reliability
Traditional power generation methods, particularly those heavily reliant on fossil fuels, contribute significantly to environmental pollution and climate change. With the rapid shift towards cleaner and sustainable energy sources, there is also an increased pressure on the high-voltage sector to reduce its carbon footprint – and for good reason. SF₆ has been the norm in the electrical industry, with SF₆-based switchgear offering unmatched technical performance and reliability. However, the gas is the most potent greenhouse gas with a high Global Warming Potential (GWP) of ~24,300. The key challenge for modern high-voltage equipment, such as switchgear, is finding a way to remove the use of this environmentally harmful gas while maintaining the outstanding reliability that SF₆-based switchgear offers.

3. Policy to power: Navigating the regulatory landscape
While regulations are crucial for ensuring safety, reliability, and environmental responsibility of the grid, they often drive innovation forward. For example, grid codes of the power networks strictly regulate the interface of electricity producers and consumers with the network. Recent environmental regulations define the environmental characteristics of the high-voltage equipment allowed to be installed in the networks.

Strategies for carbon footprint reduction

Innovative approaches to sustainable high-voltage operations

As countries strive to meet ambitious climate and sustainability goals, the imperative for the high-voltage industry to innovate and implement effective carbon reduction strategies is clear. Here, we explore real-world strategies that enable the industry to overcome hurdles and minimize carbon footprint in high-voltage while enhancing operational efficiency.

• Product design and full life cycle CO₂ emission footprint
  Innovation of power grid systems and high-voltage equipment introduce products with lower carbon dioxide footprint during their full life cycle. The environmental efficiency is measured by the product’s CO₂ footprint, considering both the raw materials used and the emissions generated throughout its entire life cycle, from cradle to grave.
• Product lifetime extension based on condition monitoring and predictive maintenance
  Implementing advanced monitoring systems enables real-time tracking of system performance and equipment condition. The comprehensive data gathered can identify patterns, inefficiencies, inform corrective measures ahead of time, reduce downtime and extend the lifetime of the existing equipment.
• Installed base and SF₆ emission management
  SF₆ is predominantly used in high-voltage circuit breakers, switchgear, and other equipment because of its excellent insulation and arc-quenching properties. However, even small leaks of this gas can have disproportionately large impacts. Once SF₆ leaks into the atmosphere, there’s no calling it back. By investing in specialized technologies that minimize SF₆ losses, companies can prevent unnecessary emissions during routine operations and maintenance of the installed high-voltage equipment. Retrofilling of SF₆ in high-voltage equipment with eco-efficient alternatives can support the emissions from the installed base. On the other hand, replacing functional equipment can only be sustainable if it has been thoroughly analyzed to bring benefit from the entire lifespan’s perspective.

EconiQ^TM: Enabling system reliability, availability, and SF₆-free

Hitachi Energy’s EconiQ portfolio stands out as a game-changing solution for an SF₆-free high-voltage future. The entire EconiQ high-voltage portfolio uses a powerful alternative gas that offers the same performance, reliability, and scalability as conventional solutions, while delivering the lowest carbon footprint throughout the total life cycle.

A powerful portfolio continues to make history

In CIGRE Session 2024, Hitachi Energy unveiled its latest milestone achievement, the world’s highest voltage SF₆-free switchgear – the EconiQ 550 kV circuit breaker that can be used in gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) or dead tank circuit breakers (DTBs). This achievement demonstrates the scalability of our technology to reach transmission-level voltages in switchgear.

Since the portfolio’s launch in 2021, EconiQ has achieved multiple world-firsts in SF₆-free high-voltage technologies and is becoming widely adopted across continents and embraced by industry leaders.

EconiQ is more than an innovation in high-voltage switchgear – it’s a testament to human ingenuity driving the future of sustainable energy. The real key to EconiQ’s success is the brilliant team behind it – the engineers, scientists, and innovators at Hitachi Energy have collaborated tirelessly to develop this technology. Their groundbreaking work shows a deep commitment to provide future generations with sustainable energy systems that modern society relies on daily. 

Listen to the latest episode of Power Pulse where I share insights about how the high-voltage sector navigates new challenges, especially the mounting pressure to reduce environmental impact. 

The path forward for the high-voltage industry

To navigate the high-voltage challenges of today, collaboration will be our greatest ally. Industry stakeholders must foster strong partnerships between technology developers, utilities, regulators, and communities. By sharing knowledge, investing in research and development, investing in people and continuous learning, the high-voltage sector can not only overcome current obstacles but also position itself as a leader in the global energy transition. Embracing digitalization, sustainable practices, and new SF₆-free technologies such as EconiQ will empower the entire industry to anticipate challenges and respond with agility, ensuring that our infrastructure can adapt to the shifting demands of a low-carbon economy.