1
Gas Insulated Substation GIS
Phil Bolin, Fellow Member of IEEE, PES Substations
Committee
Hermann Koch, Senior Member of IEEE, PES Substations
Committee
A. Development
Reliable and economical power transmission and distribution
are key functions for the future electric power supply. High-
voltage switchgear and equipment for voltages above 1 kV up
to 800 kV are safety elements within the electrical energy
supply and therefore subjected to a very high standard of
availability and reliability. Gas insulated switchgear is used in
industrial areas to fulfill high-energy demands by space saving
design with a minimum of cost. Only SF6 insulated
switchgear is able to fulfill these requirements.
With the use of SF6 the modern technology the world’s
first SF6 high-voltage gas-insulated switchgear was
introduced into the market 1968, using SF6 as the insulating
and arc-quenching medium for the first time ever. SF6
switchgear installed in Canada in a 550kV substation with
100kA as the highest breaking capacity ever achieved in one
of the steps of development since then. Consistent research
and development and innovative energy led to the third
generation of nowadays compact and overall optimized
switchgear.
GIS technology is typically of modular design and filled
with a minimum of SF6. It has low- LCC cost and can be used
for indoor and outdoor application.
It has the following major features:
• Factory pre-assembled and tested units
• Operating life > 50 years
• Major inspection not before 25 years
• Motor-operated self-lubricated mechanisms
• Minimal cleaning requirement
• Corrosion-resistant
• Low fault-probability / high availability
• Protected against aggressive environmental conditions
• Seismic resistant
• Space requirement less than 20 % of comparable AIS
978-1-4244-1904-3/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE
1960 Start of fundamental studies in research and develop-
ment of SF6 technology
1964 Delivery of the first SF6 single-pressure circuit-
breaker
1968 Delivery of first GIS by major manufacturers
1974 Delivery of first GIL (420 kV)
1976 Delivery of first 550 kV GIS
1983 Delivery of the world's largest GIS for Itaipu, Brazil
1984 Delivery of 550 kV GIS for severe network conditions
(rated current 8000 A, rated short circuit breaking
current 100 kA, 17 circuit-breakers)
1986 Delivery of first 800 kV GIS
1996 Introduction of the smallest 123kV GIS
1997 Introduction of intelligent bay control, monitoring and
diagnostics
1999 Introduction of the smallest 145 kV and 245 kV GIS
2000 Introduction of new compact and hybrid solutions
• more than 20000 bays in over 2000 substations
installed worldwide
• more than 200,000 bay-years of operation
Fig. I-2. More than 40 years of experience with gas-insulated switchgear of
mayor manufacturers
B. Design
Metal-enclosed SF6 insulated switchgear (GIS) has already
a long service experience since it was firstly introduced into
the market 1968 with SF6 also as arc quenching medium as an
interesting and economical alternative to conventional air
insulated substations. At these days the GIS technology
started based on extensive fundamental research and since
then the service experience together with innovative
development work has brought this technique forward to a
safe and environmental compatible, a most reliable and
available element of the energy supply. The tremendous
progress of development can be seen as an example of the
classic three phase enclosure of a 72.5-170kV GIS on the
following picture in figure 1.
Fig. 1. Classic three phase cross-section of a 72.5-170kV GIS
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The advantages of gas-insulated switchgear are its compact 110

design and the modular system. The standardized modular [% ]

100
90
structure is made to match the various customers 80

specifications and allows to realize almost all substation 70

60
configurations in compliance to them. 50
40
Circuit- Current Extension Busbars Termination 30
Size of building
breakers transformers modules modules 20 Space requirement
Cables 10 Packing volume
0
68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98
Year
Transformers
Fig. I-12. Progress of GIS Development (145 kV)

Disconnectors Outdoor Manufacturing has also changed. A customer’s order will

and earthing Voltage Surge Expansion bushings
switches transformers arresters joints
Fig. I-4. Typical Modules of a 245 kV - GIS
C. Design Features
The use of SF6 within the power energy supply is mainly
driven by the gas-insulated switchgear. The state of the art
shows single phase and three phase encapsulated designs. For
the distribution voltage level mainly three phase enclosures
are used. For higher voltage levels single-phase encapsulation
is a standard.
In the last years the development of SF6 insulated switch-
gear was mainly driven by the aim to reduce the use of mate-
rial and costs by still extremely high reliability.
Main steps of the development were as follows:
• progress of circuit-breaker technology, which allows to
reduce the number of interrupter units despite increasing
breaking capability
• progress of casting and machining technology of alumi-
num casted parts, which allow the use of minimized
shapes and volumes
• use of computerized production and testing equipment
with high quality standards
• design of integrated components with several functions
like disconnectors and grounding switches within one gas
compartment
• use of intelligent monitoring and diagnostic tools to post-
pone maintenance activities and to avoid unnecessary
tasks
be given into an electronic data processing system, which de-
tails the substation down to the components and finally into
the single parts. The steps of the manufacturing processes are
defined by a process map and accompanied by quality
assurance milestones to make sure that the same level of
reliability will be reached with every single piece of
equipment. The interdependence of manufacturing processes
in terms of technical specifications, used materials, available
machinery, logistics and personnel is highly complex. The
optimal point has been reached when the module meets all the
technological demands while being produced in few and
simple manufacturing steps.
The long time service experience and extensive tests have
shown that there is no difference between triple-pole and
single-pole bus arrangements. In general the bus conductors
are arranged symmetrically with insulating and supporting
elements like spacers made of cast resin.
D. Materials of the enclosure
The manufacture of SF6-insulated high-voltage circuit
breakers started over 35 years ago with steel pressure vessels.
They provided high resistance against internal arcs and were
at these times the only guarantee for extreme gas-tightness.
To ensure this the vessels were welded from sheet steel, some
of which was supplied from in-house rolling processes. All
welded seams had to be radiologically examined.
Therefore the processing of the gas-tight pressure vessels
represents beside the design features a key skill of manufac-
turing. Constantly high quality of enclosure and operating
mechanism production is necessary to fulfill the high require-
ments of the product.

As a result very compact substations designs are on the

market with the following changes against older equipment:
• up to 98% of space reduction in comparison to air insu-
lated switchgear
• up to 75% reduction of SF6 volume
• delivery of completely sealed and tested bay units up to
245 kV
• leakage rates down to less than 0.5% per compartment
and year
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the use in the electrical power supply.

Fig. I-14. 100% Pressure and tightness routine testing of aluminum housings

E. Competences of the Manufacturing Process

Nowadays in a modern factory only core competencies will
be kept as necessary. Those core competencies are the manu-
facturing of crucial parts to the safety and reliability of the
switchgear as insulating parts, housings and mechanical drives
and of course knowledge and experience of assembly work.
Up-to-date automated production processes ensure maximum
quality throughout the cast resin insulation and insulating ma-
terial of operating rods, post insulators and switchgear enclo-
sures alike.

Fig. I-16. Manufacturing of insulating parts, operating rods and tubes

F. Conclusion
In conclusion of the contents mentioned above it can be
stated, that all requirements are met to have a safe handling of
SF6 even under the assumption of an increasing demand for