Since 1 January 2026, medium-voltage switchgear up to 24 kV containing a fluorinated gas can no longer be placed on the EU market. French MV at 15 and 20 kV sits squarely inside that band. Here is what it means on a real project.
Sulphur hexafluoride is an excellent dielectric: it insulates and quenches the arc far better than air, which for forty years allowed very compact medium-voltage cubicles to be built. It also has a global-warming potential around 24,300 times that of CO2 and an atmospheric lifetime of thousands of years. Operating leaks, small in percentage terms, add up across a European fleet of switchgear.
Regulation (EU) 2024/573, applicable since 2024, replaces the earlier F-gas Regulation 517/2014 and tightens the regime markedly: rather than only capping the quantities placed on the market, it prohibits placing on the market whole categories of equipment on a dated timeline.
| Equipment covered | What is prohibited | From |
|---|---|---|
| Medium voltage up to 24 kV | Any fluorinated gas, whatever its GWP | 1 January 2026 |
| High voltage 52 to 145 kV, up to 50 kA | Fluorinated gases (alternatives available) | 1 January 2028 |
| Medium voltage above 24 and up to 52 kV | Any fluorinated gas | 1 January 2030 |
| High voltage above 145 kV or above 50 kA | Fluorinated gases | 1 January 2032 |
Read that carefully: the medium-voltage step is the strictest of the whole timeline. Elsewhere the text targets high-GWP gases; up to 24 kV it covers any fluorinated gas, including reduced-GWP fluorinated alternatives sometimes presented as a transition.
French public MV distribution runs at 15 and 20 kV, which corresponds to a rated voltage Um of 24 kV. A delivery substation, a plant transformation substation, a solar step-up substation, a storage connection substation: on the overwhelming majority of French projects the switchgear falls exactly inside the first step. This is not a deadline to prepare for; it is a constraint already in force.
A second point is often missed: the ban applies to placing on the Union market. Manufacturing the cubicles outside Europe creates no exemption. Whoever places the equipment on the European market under their brand carries the obligation, and answers for it under inspection. See our compliance page →
The good news is that none of this is experimental. In medium-voltage distribution, four routes are mature:
The honest trade-off: at equal performance, a fluorinated-gas-free cubicle is often somewhat bulkier and, depending on configuration, somewhat more expensive to buy. That belongs in the design of the enclosure, not in a surprise at assembly.
A supplier who answers those four precisely knows the subject. A supplier who answers "CE compliant" with no document has probably not checked.
At Veltrium Énergie the medium-voltage cubicles in our MV substations and our skid and containerised substations are specified free of fluorinated gas by default — vacuum interruption with solid or air insulation. It is not a paid option: it is our standard, because a 24 kV substation designed otherwise could not be placed on the European market. As the manufacturer placing the product on the market under its own brand, conformity of the switchgear is our responsibility, and we validate the type-test reports with the factory before the order, not on delivery.
General information on the Regulation, not legal advice. The exact categories, dates and exemptions are set out in the official text of Regulation (EU) 2024/573 and its annexes.
For medium-voltage switchgear up to 24 kV, yes. Regulation (EU) 2024/573 has prohibited placing on the Union market switchgear containing any fluorinated gas since 1 January 2026, whatever its global-warming potential. Later steps cover higher voltages in 2028, 2030 and 2032.
Yes. French MV distribution at 15 and 20 kV corresponds to a rated voltage Um of 24 kV, squarely inside the first step. A new substation designed today must therefore take fluorinated-gas-free cubicles.
Vacuum interruption combined with solid or air insulation, pressurised dry air, and for some applications gas mixtures based on CO2, nitrogen and oxygen. These technologies are mature in medium-voltage distribution.
No. The ban covers placing new equipment on the market, not operating existing installations, which remain subject to the usual leak-checking and end-of-life gas-recovery obligations.
The obligation falls on whoever places the product on the Union market under their own brand. Manufacture outside the EU creates no exemption: the ban is triggered by placing the equipment on the European market.