Guide

Buying SF6-free switchgear from China: the EU rules by voltage, the gases that qualify and the evidence to ask for

Last updated 27 September 2026

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This guide covers SF6-free medium-voltage switchgear, ring main units included, bought from Chinese manufacturers for sites in the EU and for projects elsewhere that specify an SF6-free medium. It also gives the EU high-voltage dates for reference. Sinospect checked the rules and sources below on 27 September 2026.

The EU rules by voltage

Regulation (EU) 2024/573, Article 13(9), restricts fluorinated greenhouse gases in the insulating or breaking medium of switchgear put into operation from these dates:

Table 1 of the Commission’s FAQ on switchgear, version 3, 19 November 2025. The exceptions below apply to every band.
Rated voltage of the design	Insulating or breaking medium	From
Up to and including 24 kV	No fluorinated gas	1 January 2026
Above 24 kV, up to and including 52 kV	No fluorinated gas	1 January 2030
Above 52 kV, up to and including 145 kV and 50 kA	Fluorinated gases with a global warming potential (GWP) below 1 only	1 January 2028
Above 145 kV or above 50 kA	Fluorinated gases with a GWP below 1 only	1 January 2032

The Commission’s FAQ explains how the rules apply:

The voltage band follows the design of the equipment: SF6 switchgear designed for 35 kV can be installed in a grid below 24 kV until 1 January 2030.
The rules cover public grids and privately owned or operated grids, such as those of industrial installations and airports. Generator circuit breakers are outside their scope.
The date that counts is the putting into operation: the handover to the operator for use, after any necessary tests and inspections. The handover can come before energisation or grid connection. For wind turbines, and for other large projects where switchgear is a minor element, it can be the date the contractor completes the switchgear installation and its connection to the grid.
The operator, the undertaking with actual power over the switchgear’s technical functioning, answers for compliance. An undertaking that puts switchgear into operation is the operator until the legal handover to another undertaking.
When a delay pushes the putting into operation past a ban date, the FAQ advises contacting the national F-gas authority in advance.

Which gases count

The restriction covers switchgear with fluorinated greenhouse gases, alone or in mixtures. The FAQ names three in use: SF6, fluoronitrile (C4F7N, also called C4FN) and fluoroketone (C5F10O, also called C5FK). Up to 52 kV the rule covers all three, whatever their GWP; the threshold of a GWP below 1 applies above 52 kV. Annex VI of the regulation sets how to calculate the GWP of a mixture.

From Article 13(9) of Regulation (EU) 2024/573 and the Commission’s FAQ. “Exceptions only” refers to the exceptions set out below.
Insulating or breaking gas	Up to 52 kV	Above 52 kV
SF6	Exceptions only	Exceptions only
Fluoronitrile (C4F7N) mixtures	Exceptions only	Exceptions only
Fluoroketone (C5F10O) mixtures	Exceptions only	Meets the rule with a GWP below 1
Technical air, nitrogen or CO2	Meets the rule	Meets the rule

For orders of magnitude, the Commission’s 2020 report on alternatives put fluoroketones at a GWP below 1 and fluoronitriles at 2,100, so blends of 4% or 20% fluoronitrile in CO2 came to 180 or 500, against 22,800 for SF6.

The SF6-free constructions

In the same report, gas-insulated SF6-free designs use technical air (nitrogen and oxygen) or CO2, sometimes with small quantities of fluoronitrile or fluoroketone added. Solid-insulation designs combine solid insulation with air at ambient pressure in a hermetically sealed tank. For breaking, vacuum is the dominant solution for circuit breakers, and SF6-free load-break switch-fuse combinations were new on the market in 2020.

For secondary distribution, the report found SF6-free units on the market with the same dimensions and electrical ratings as the same maker’s SF6 units, with the widest choice up to 24 kV. Many used fluorinated blends, which in the EU now fall under the medium-voltage dates. Those blends also have a higher lowest operating temperature than SF6, which counts on cold sites with uncontrolled temperatures. Technical-air designs were insensitive to temperature; in 2020 several makers offered them up to 12 kV and one up to 24 kV.

Replacing an SF6 load-break switch-fuse combination with a vacuum circuit-breaker changes the protection. According to the same report, circuit breakers take longer to clear a short circuit than switch-fuse combinations, so their selectivity with the upstream protection needs coordinating. They also need maintenance, where load-break switches are maintenance-free.

Switchgear with a solid-insulation enclosure has its own standard, IEC 62271-201, whose third edition was published on 22 July 2026; metal-enclosed designs follow IEC 62271-200, whatever the insulating medium. The guides to medium-voltage switchgear and to RMUs and compact substations list the editions and type tests.

“Eco-friendly gas” in Chinese offers

Chinese makers and researchers use 环保气体 (eco-friendly gas) and 环保绝缘气体 (eco-friendly insulating gas) for two different constructions. Eaton’s RVACN-K ring main unit, presented in a Chinese news article of 12 January 2023 as an eco-friendly-gas unit, uses dry-air insulation with an integrated three-position switch. A 2021 review in the Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society calls C4F7N, a fluoronitrile, an eco-friendly insulating gas. It records China’s first 12 kV ring main unit insulated with a C4F7N–CO2 mixture, developed in January 2019, and 10 kV ring main units with C4F7N that Yunnan Power Grid put into grid operation in December 2019.

For an EU site up to 52 kV, the dry-air unit meets the rule and the C4F7N unit is limited to the exceptions, such as the procurement route. The offer therefore names the gas and its composition.

The exceptions a project can use

According to the FAQ, Article 13 keeps SF6 or another fluorinated medium possible in these cases:

switchgear temporarily taken out of operation and put back into operation at another location in the EU (Article 13(10));
switchgear whose order was signed before 11 March 2024, for the specific equipment or through a framework agreement that specifically determines the equipment and its delivery (Article 13(14));
extensions where the added device is incompatible with the existing installation and meeting the restriction would require replacing the whole installation (Article 13(15));
parts installed to service or repair existing switchgear (Article 13(18));
the procurement route (Article 13(11) and (12)), shown below.

Two further routes are narrow: a Commission decision that temporarily exempts certain equipment where compliance would entail disproportionate costs, on a substantiated request from a Member State and after a favourable committee vote, and a life-cycle route that awaits an ecodesign methodology. The operator keeps the documents on any exception used, spare parts aside, for five years, and notifies the competent authority when using the order-date, extension or procurement route, at the latest when the switchgear is put into operation.

Medium voltage, up to 52 kV

Step 1 · Article 13(9)
No fluorinated gas
From 1 January 2026 up to 24 kV, and from 1 January 2030 above 24 kV up to 52 kV.
When the tender received no bid with compliant equipment, at any date; or bids from a single manufacturer only, until 1 January 2028 up to 24 kV and until 1 January 2032 above 24 kV.
Step 2 · Article 13(11)
A medium with a GWP below 1,000
Such as fluoronitrile (C4F7N) mixtures.
When the tender received no bid with a medium below a GWP of 1,000 either, at any date.
Step 3 · Article 13(12)
Any medium, SF6 included

One tender that leaves the gas open is enough. The operator notifies the competent authority and keeps the documents for five years (Article 13(16) and (17)).

After Figure 1 of the Commission’s FAQ on switchgear, version 3, 19 November 2025, which shows the route for high voltage and applies it by analogy to every voltage band. Checked on 27 September 2026.

A single tender that leaves the insulating or breaking gas open is enough to show the absence of compliant bids. It can set space restrictions and delivery dates, and its technical criteria are limited to what the specific use requires.

What the offer and the type tests show

The insulating medium and the breaking medium, with the gas composition and the rated filling pressure.
The standard and edition: IEC 62271-200 or IEC 62271-201, and the device standards for the switches, switch-fuse combinations and circuit-breakers.
Type-test reports for the SF6-free design itself, internal arc classification included; a report on the maker’s SF6 version covers a different design.
The minimum ambient temperature the design is rated for.
Dimensions and weight, against the space available.
For EU sites: the planned handover date against the ban dates, and the documents for any exception used.

Outside the EU

California’s Air Resources Board phases out the acquisition of SF6 gas-insulated equipment for use in the state (title 17 CCR § 95352). Up to 38 kV, the dates are 1 January 2025 for aboveground equipment below 38 kV and belowground equipment below 25 kA, 1 January 2028 for aboveground equipment at 38 kV, and 1 January 2031 for belowground equipment from 25 kA; higher voltages follow dates from 2025 to 2033. Replacement parts stay outside the phase-out, and equipment bought before its date may still enter California within 24 months of purchase. Elsewhere, the utility or project specification sets the insulating medium.

Switchgear with fluorinated gases already in service

In the EU, switchgear with SF6 or another fluorinated gas already in service follows operating rules, according to the FAQ. A detected leak is repaired without delay. Leak checks apply from 6 kg of SF6 or fluoronitrile unless the equipment has a tested leakage rate below 0.1% a year, labelled accordingly, or a pressure or gas-density monitoring device with an automatic alert. Persons certified under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/627 carry out installation, maintenance, servicing, repair, decommissioning and gas recovery. From 1 January 2035, only reclaimed or recycled SF6 may be used for maintenance or servicing, with an exception for emergency repairs.

What moves the price and the lead time

the insulating medium and the breaking technology: technical air or nitrogen, solid insulation, vacuum switches or circuit-breakers;
the ratings, the short-circuit level and the internal arc classification;
the type-test status of the SF6-free version;
transformer protection: switch-fuse combination, or circuit-breaker with its relay;
footprint and weight against the space available;
the delivery date against the handover date the project needs.

A BOQ that lists these per functional unit gets quotations that can be compared line by line: see preparing a BOQ or specification.

Buyer checklist

Before award

The insulating and breaking media named, with the gas composition and the rated filling pressure; for EU sites up to 52 kV, a medium free of fluorinated gas or a documented exception.
IEC 62271-200 or IEC 62271-201 named with its edition, and type-test reports for the SF6-free design: laboratory, accreditation, date, edition.
The minimum ambient temperature, dimensions and weight, checked against the site.
The planned handover date, checked against the EU dates.

Before shipment

Routine test records for each unit.
The factory acceptance test witnessed where the contract provides for it.
Gas-filling records and the pressure or density monitoring settings, with manuals in the destination language.

Frequently asked questions

Is SF6 switchgear still allowed in the EU?

Medium-voltage switchgear up to and including 24 kV that uses fluorinated gases, SF6 included, can be put into operation from 1 January 2026 only through the exceptions in Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2024/573, and above 24 kV up to 52 kV from 1 January 2030. The exceptions cover relocations, orders signed before 11 March 2024, incompatible extensions, spare parts and a procurement route. From 2028 and 2032, fluorinated gases in high-voltage switchgear need a global warming potential below 1.

Are fluoroketone or fluoronitrile mixtures allowed in medium-voltage switchgear in the EU?

Up to 52 kV they fall under the same dates and exceptions as SF6, because the rule covers every fluorinated gas. Fluoronitrile (C4F7N) mixtures can qualify through the procurement route, which allows a medium with a global warming potential below 1,000 when a tender draws no compliant bid, or, in the first two years, bids from a single manufacturer only.

What does “eco-friendly gas” mean in a Chinese RMU offer?

The Chinese terms 环保气体 and 环保绝缘气体 cover dry-air designs and fluoronitrile mixtures such as C4F7N–CO2. For an EU site up to 52 kV, only the dry-air design meets the general rule, so the offer names the gas and its composition.

When is switchgear “put into operation” under the EU F-gas rules?

At the handover to the operator for use, after any necessary tests and inspections, according to the Commission’s FAQ; the handover can come before energisation or grid connection. For wind turbines and other large projects where switchgear is a minor element, it can be the date the contractor completes the switchgear installation and its connection to the grid.

LV/MV supply and estimating

Sinospect’s LV/MV service works from your drawings: prequalified Chinese sources, a drawing-led BOQ, comparable quotations and the compliance checks the project needs, including the declared insulating medium and the type-test reports for the SF6-free design. See LV/MV supply and estimating and the guides to medium-voltage switchgear, RMUs and compact substations, distribution transformers and LV switchboards from China. The guide to estimating an LV/MV package puts the whole package in one BOQ.

Buying SF6-free switchgear from China?

Send the single-line diagram, the switchgear schedule and the project specification. Sinospect’s LV/MV service reviews them and proposes the BOQ, the quotations to compare and the evidence each item needs.

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Sources

Checked at the sources on 27 September 2026.