High Voltage Circuit Breakers:SF6vs. Vacuum

Abstract

As important as finding new renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy is the fact of transmitting and distributing this energy in the safest and most efficient way. In this field, High Voltage Circuit Breakers (HV CB), designed for operation of the electric network under normal conditions as well as for the interruption of faulted conditions, have played an important role in power systems over 100 years. However, research, development and improvement of the design of CBs have not stopped in our nowadays expanding grid. The aim of this paper is to make a review of the existing different types of HV CB, comparing the most used one, SF6 CB, with the Vacuum CB, which has been developed and recently applied for HV, and could become the future environmental friendly HV CB.