One of the major challenges of aging Gas-Insulated Substations (GIS) is optimizing the cost of asset ownership as maintenance needs increase and technology becomes obsolete.

GIS circuit breakers with hydraulic or pneumatic mechanisms are exposed to the highest risk of major failure, with 32% of major failures linked to a component within the circuit breaker operating mechanism. Operators need solutions that extend the lifetime of the substation while improving asset reliability.

GE’s GIS retrofit solutions are the latest addition to a broad range of services for GIS and enable the extension of the substation’s lifetime. The solution is designed to replace obsolete circuit breakers manufactured by GE or a 3rd party with a new GE vertical circuit breaker. This GIS retrofit is a efficient solution, reducing investment cost and outage time compared to a substation replacement, and a reliable method to modernize the substation by gaining all the advantages of implementing latest technology with pure spring mechanism.

The solution is suitable to replace vertical or horizontal GIS circuit breakers with a compact arrangement.