Improving the Bottom Line: How Gas-Insulated Substations can Offer Operational & Maintenance Cost Savings for Petrochemical Facilities

To avoid production downtime, petrochemical facilities need reliable infrastructure. Gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) can often offer counterintuitive cost-effective solutions for petrochemical facilities that are considering new substation construction or upgrades to existing substations. Obstacles such as higher initial capital investment, lack of GIS operation and maintenance expertise, and sulfur hexafluoride gas (SF
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) emissions concerns can prevent facilities from pursuing this option despite potential long-term savings. This paper offers solutions to these common roadblocks and presents several benefits that positively impact a facility’s bottom line. The paper explores long-term maintenance costs for GIS substations versus air-insulated substations; the lower costs of depreciation over a GIS substation’s longer useful life; and the greater reliability of GIS substations. Additional considerations that can impact operational and maintenance costs include reduced safety risks for personnel and enhanced equipment protection in high contamination environments. Installing modular GIS assemblies can also reduce construction time, minimizing potential disruptions to plant operations. Additionally, the historically predominant SF
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gas insulating medium, whose use is rapidly becoming more heavily regulated due to its environmental impact, is no longer the only option for GIS builds. New alternative insulation gas mixtures can eliminate the use of SF
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gas, helping facilities meet environmental sustainability goals.