EU parliamentarians double down on F-gas emission reductions
The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) has voted to accelerate the phase down of SF6 and other fluorinated gases (F-gases) on the EU market.
The goal is to achieve a zero target by 2050, thereby aligning the production and consumption with the region’s net zero goal.
The measure, among 55 pages of amendments to initial proposals, forms part of the revision of the Commission’s directive and regulation on F-gases.
Other objectives of the revision include enhancing implementation and enforcement on issues such as illegal trade and the training needs on F-gas alternatives and improving monitoring and reporting as well as making textual improvements.
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Fluorinated gases include hydrofluorocarbons as the most important component, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride and are greenhouse gases with high global warming potential.
Of these, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) is of most interest to the energy industry with its widespread use in switchgear, while other uses for F-gases have included refrigerators, air conditioning, heat pumps, fire protection and foams and aerosols.
Overall, the F-gases are estimated to account for about 2.5% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and thus their elimination, while a small component is nevertheless a necessary one.
As the members of the Switching Gears for Net Zero Alliance – six leading global power equipment manufacturers – put it, “Our choice is clear: we want to switch gears for net zero, for zero F-gases in switchgear”.
Measures on SF6
SF6 has been in the sights of the EU with its 2014 prohibition for most applications, except for the power sector due to the lack of alternatives at the time.
The new measures on SF6 confirm the existing prohibitions on specific uses but complement them with additional restrictions on their use in all new switchgear in power distribution, either as replacements or additions.
These are:
● MV switchgear for primary and secondary distribution ≤24kV – from 1 January 2026
● MV switchgear for primary and secondary distribution from >24kV to ≤52kV – 1 January 2028
● HV switchgear from >52kV to ≤145kV and ≤50kA short circuit current – 1 January 2028
● HV switchgear >145kV and >50kA short circuit current – 1 January 2031.
Switchgears already installed in the grid as of these dates do not require to be replaced.
With SF6 free alternatives already available on the market, and with the long lifetime of switchgear in the grid, network operators have the opportunity to get ahead of the restrictions, while also contributing to the reduction of their own carbon footprint.
Among these, solutions with fluoronitrile mixtures, while having lower global warming potential than SF6, nevertheless involve the use of environmentally harmful F-gases and are not encouraged.
Mark Kuschel, Head of International Standardisation Grid Technologies at Siemens Energy, says the vote to ban climate-damaging F-gases in switchgear is an important milestone in the decarbonisation of power transmission.
“It ensures that in the future climate-damaging gases will be replaced by climate-friendly alternatives in power transmission – the right technologies and know-how for this are already available today.”
Heat pumps
The other main topic of interest for the power sector is heat pumps, with their use being promoted due to their lower emissions compared to conventional natural gas boilers. The concern is that the HFC phase-down does not endanger the REPowerEU heat pump deployment targets as the industry adapts to alternatives.
HFC prohibitions start to take effect from 1 January 2026, one year later than initially proposed. After that the Commission will undertake assessments annually on the impact of the phase-down, with a view to allowing a limited amount of additional quotas for HFCs in heat pumps until 2029.
The REPowerEU target is the rollout of 10 million heat pumps by 2027 and a doubling of the rate of their deployment by 2030.
The next step for the proposals is their adoption during the 29-30 March 2023 plenary sitting and then serving as the negotiating position with EU governments on the final shape of the legislation.
