Vice President Research & Development, Peter Kirchesch.

	72 kV live tank SF6 breaker used in internal fault testing.

Like other manufacturers of HV electrical apparatus today, Alstom has viewed the advent of composite insulators with a curious mixture of interest and skepticism. Interest, because management recognize that competitive pressures clearly require that the company be prepared to offer apparatus equipped with these insulators should the market suddenly move away from porcelain; skepticism, since internal research has apparently demonstrated that there are still performance issues which need to be resolved in order for composite insulators to be as reliable or, in some cases, as economical as porcelain.

Composite insulators of live tank breaker after explosions initiated by short circuit test.

This combination of viewpoints has resulted in a situation whereby Alstom already offers a broad range of composite insulated switchgear from 72.5 kV up to 245 kV, with projects underway to expand these offerings even further. At the same time, a sustained research effort is being undertaken to fully assess and better understand the long-term behaviour of these insulators.

Alstom is a 140,000 employee multinational with operations in three major areas - energy, transport and T&D. The T&D sector employs 26,000 of which some one-third work directly in the Transmission Business Organization. HV Switchgear makes up an important proportion of the activities of this Business Unit with plants in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Switzerland.