On 19/09/2019 09:15, The Other Mike wrote:
On Wed, 18 Sep 2019 12:06:50 +0100, newshound
wrote:

On 18/09/2019 07:29, harry wrote:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49567197
When I was involved, oil was mainly used.

I'd say *not* an interesting topic. It would have been interesting if
they had explored the many benefits of SF6, and how they stacked up
about the supposed costs. But that is modern journalism for you.

From the perspective of the grid and distribution networks it leads to much more
compact switchgear, less land area, massively extended maintenance intervals,
higher reliability, no possibility of oil leaks, no need for oil containment and
oil in water management, no need for air compressors and a massively reduced
possibility of catastrophic switchgear failure.

First large scale install in the UK was mid 70's at a site on the Sheffield
275kV ring

For the UK there has been stringent management in terms of filling, leak
detection and gas recovery for many decades.

Touching a 400kV metalclad busbar casing with the live conductor just 100mm
beyond your fingertips is possible. It's no more than an earthed bit of
pipework.

That's what I love about this group. It's sometimes even better at
answering arcane questions than Google!

:-)

(Spent my 50 years on the generation side, had very little to do with
transmission).