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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY 1

International Surveys on Circuit-Breaker Reliability

Data for Substation and System Studies
Anton Janssen, Member, IEEE, Dirk Makareinis, and Carl-Ejnar Slver

AbstractSince the 1970s, CIGRE has conducted three world- a CB that causes the cessation of one or more of its fundamental
wide surveys on high-voltage circuit-breaker (CB) reliability. functions (i.e., a so-called major failure, MF or MaF) and other
The results of the last inquiry, published last year, are presented failures (minor failures, mf or MiF) and defects. By definition
and compared with those of the former inquiries. With a focus
on the CBs fundamental functions for the system, figures show [1], a defect is an imperfection in the state of an item (or inherent
the growth in reliability during the past decades. The reliability weakness) which can result in one or more failures of the item
is expressed in failure per 100 CB years (CBY) or per 10 000 itself or of another item under the specific service or environ-
operating cycles for the relevant failure modes. The overall major mental or maintenance conditions for a stated period of time.
failure rate improved largely from the first (1.58 per 100 CBY) An MaF will result in an immediate change in the power
to the second (0.67 per 100 CBY) to the third enquiry (0.30 per
100 CBY). The failure rate increases with higher voltage classes; system operating conditions (e.g., the backup protective equip-
GIS CBs have been shown to be twice as reliable and live tank ment being required to remove the fault), or will result in
CBs twice as bad as the average failure rate. Although improved, mandatory removal from service within 30 min for nonsched-
the mechanical operating mechanism is still the subassembly uled maintenance [1].
responsible for most failures; besides, CBs applied for frequent The CBs fundamental functions (i.e., the lack of fundamental
switching purposes show a higher failure rate than average.
functions: MaF) are as follows:
Index TermsFailure modes, high-voltage circuit breaker (CB), does not close or open on command;
major failure, reliability data, reliability definitions, system relia-
closes or opens without command;
bility.
does not make or break the current;
fails to carry the current;
I. INTRODUCTION breakdown to earth or between poles;
breakdown across open pole (internal or external);
locked in open or closed position.

F AST, selective and reliable fault clearing is a prerequisite

for an electric power system. One of important elements of
the protection system is the circuit breaker (CB). Under normal
Note that a difference is made between the mechanical re-
sponse of the CB (the first two items and the last item), the elec-
trical functions (making, breaking, carrying the current), and the
circumstances, the CB has to carry the current and energize or dielectric failures (breakdowns, including breakdowns across
de-energize sections of the high-voltage (HV) network. But at open poles).
the very moment that somewhere in the network a short circuit Examples of MiF are:
appears, the CB is the only high-voltage apparatus to protect air/hydraulic oil leakage in the operating mechanism;
the network. If the short-circuit current is not cleared immedi- small gas leakage due to corrosion or other causes;
ately, the backup protection systems will trip a larger part of the change in functional characteristics.
network, leading to an outage of more overhead lines, busbars, The functional characteristics may include closing and
and substations. In such a case, the power supply for a larger opening times, travel characteristics, lock-out pressure levels,
area will be interrupted. Moreover, the fault must be quickly re- and automatic functions such as for pole discrepancy.
moved since otherwise dynamic stability problems in the entire Major failures are defined from the perspective of the CB fun-
power system may occur. damental functions, but from a system perspective, sometimes
Consequently, the requirements for CB performance and reli- such a failure does not interfere with the system fundamental
ability are very high. These requirements are not only imposed functions (e.g., does not open or close on an operators com-
on new CBs but also on old CBs and determine the utilitys mand). Utilities therefore may face problems when linking their
maintenance and life-management strategy. From the point of failure reporting, that is related to power interruption, directly
view of reliability, distinction can be made between a failure of to the information defined by IEC, which is formulated from the
apparatus perspective.
Manuscript received March 28, 2013; revised June 27, 2013; accepted July
20, 2013. Paper no. TPWRD-00360-2013. II. WORLDWIDE SURVEYS
A. Janssen is with Liander, Arnhem 6812 AR, the Netherlands (e-mail: anton.
[email protected]). Conseil International des Grands Rseaux Electriques
D. Makareinis is with Siemens Power Transmission Division, Berlin 13629, (CIGRE) is the International Council on Large Electric Systems
Germany (e-mail: [email protected]).
(www.cigre.org), that conducted three worldwide enquiries on
C.-E. Slver is a consulting engineer for STRI, Ludvika SE-77131, Sweden
(e-mail: [email protected]). high-voltage CB failures and defects in service. Forementioned
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2013.2274750 definitions, functions, and failures have been established by

0885-8977 2013 IEEE

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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY

CIGRE Working Group 13.06, later Working Group A3.06,

responsible for the surveys. In the meantime, similar definitions
are used for other components and have been introduced in the
IEC standards [1].

A. First Worldwide Inquiry

The first international survey covered failures and defects of

CBs with a rated voltage of 63 kV and above. During the survey,
failures have been observed for four years (19741977), in total,
77 892 CB years, put into service after 1963. At that time, dif-
ferent arc extinguishing technologies have been included, but
during the statistical analysis of the failures, no further distinc- Fig. 1. Third inquiry application in the percentage of CB population.
tion has been made between the technologies (air-blast, bulk
oil, minimum oil, single and double pressure -gas, vacuum,
etc.). A total of 102 utilities from 22 countries participated in the covered the service experience with earthing switches, discon-
inquiry. By means of population cards and failure cards, the in- nectors, instrument transformers, and gas-insulated switchgear
formation on service experience has been collected. Apart from (GIS) [4].
information about failures, also information about maintenance The third inquiry included CBs of all ages, as a relation
intervals, maintenance costs, and the number of switching op- between MaF-rate and age was an important objective of the
erations has been collected (operating cycles). third survey. New was a distinction in CBs application (over-
All information has been analyzed per voltage class (63100 head line, cable, transformer, shunt reactor, shunt capacitor, bus
kV, 100200 kV, 200300 kV, 300500 kV, 500 kV). coupler). More information has been asked about the enclosure,
Results from the survey and specific investigations have as a differentiation was made between dead-tank breakers,
been published in several professional organizations. The most three-phase enclosed GIS, and single-phase enclosed GIS (see
important publication was in Electra No. 79 (1981) [2]. The the Appendix). Also, more details of dielectric failure modes
studies were the basis for new mechanical and environmental were asked, especially concerning its occurrence; that is, during
tests on CBs, such as mechanical operation tests, with an closing/opening operation or during closed/open position. The
increased number of cycles, low/high temperature tests and a outcome of the investigations on CB reliability in service is
humidity test. available as CIGRE Technical Brochure 510 (2012) [5].

B. Second Worldwide Survey

III. POPULATION AND FAILURE STATISTICS
The second international inquiry had the same structure, but
was limited to single pressure -gas technology only. How-
A. Applications
ever, a distinction has been made between different technologies
of the operating mechanism (hydraulic, pneumatic, spring) and From the population data, it is clear that a quarter of the
its impact on the failure rates. high-voltage CBs is applied in transformer bays. Sixty percent
Moreover, distinction has been made between metal-enclosed is applied to overhead line and cable bays (54% to line and 6% to
and nonmetal-enclosed CBs; equipment installed outdoors and cable bays); most cable bays are constructed in GIS technology.
indoors; and equipment put into service before and after January Ten percent of all CBs are used as bus couplers (Fig. 1). Shunt
1, 1983. The survey was conducted during the years 19881991, reactors and shunt capacitor banks each require only a few per-
and covered CBs put into service after 1977. The total popula- cent of the whole CB population, though they cover more than
tion consisted of 70 708 CB-years from 132 utilities of 22 coun- 20% of the MaF. Since the latter CBs are those that will be op-
tries. The main objectives were to see whether the reliability, erated quite often, a comparison has been made between the
especially the mechanical reliability, of CBs has improved and MaF-rate and the average number of operating cycles per year
whether maintenance intervals and maintenance efforts have de- per application; the number of cycles has been based on the in-
veloped in a profitable way. The final report has been published formation collected per MaF-failure card. An operating cycle
as CIGRE Technical Brochure 83 (1994) [3]. is composed of one open and one close operation. For conve-
nience reasons, in Fig. 2, the MaF-rate is expressed per 10 000
C. Third Worldwide Survey CB years (CBY). In Fig. 2, the idea is underlined that from the
point of view of reliability, a CB is mainly a mechanical device.
The third inquiry covered service experience in the years
20042007 and 281 090 CB-years from 83 utilities of 26 coun-
tries and was again limited to single pressure technology. B. Technology
The population of the third inquiry differs quite substantially
from the former two inquiries; a fact to be considered when With the age distribution as published in the third inquiry
making comparisons. The inquiry was a part of a survey that [5], it is clear that about half of the population of -gas CBs
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JANSSEN et al.: INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS ON CB RELIABILITY DATA 3

Fig. 4. Overall MaF rate by voltage class for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd inquiries.
Fig. 2. Third inquiry MaF rate and number of cycles per application.

third inquiry (0.30 per 100 CBY). The main step forwards after
the first inquiry was the improvement in arcing chamber perfor-
mance so that less arcing chambers were required and, there-
fore, fewer parts and operating mechanisms. From the second
to the third inquiry, a further rationalization of the designes-
pecially self-blast technologyhas led to less operating energy
required per arcing chamber and, therefore, there is less me-
chanical stress and wear. Apart from that, modular design and
production quality control are rewarded.
It should also be mentioned that in the standards, more at-
tention has been paid to the requirements for mechanical en-
durance, for instance, to class M2 [6] as will be discussed in
Section IV.

Fig. 3. MaF-rate per drive technology for failures allocated to the drive based C. Voltage Class, Enclosure, Location
on table 3.5.1 [3], 225 [5], and 218, 2110, 2211 (last two columns) [5].
By voltage class, the results from the three surveys show the
same tendency, as can be seen in Fig. 4. Similar to the second in-
quiry, in the third inquiry, the reliability of metal-enclosed CBs
covers the same period as investigated during the second in-
(dead-tank, GIS, hybrid) gives a far lower MaF rate than that of
quiry. The change in products manufactured per year is as fol-
live tank CBs: 0.144 per 100 CBY versus 0.483 per 100 CBY
lows. Over the years, the portion of GIS CBs lays between
[4]. In the third inquiry, the population of ME-enclosed CBs is
20 and 30% with a slow trend to more three-phase enclosed
slightly larger than the population of live-tank breakers. Almost
GIS applications. The remainder are live-tank and dead-tank
all live- and dead-tank breakers are located outdoors as well as
breakers; dead-tank breakers show a strongly decreasing trend
the largest part of the GIS CBs.
since, before 1980, its portion happened to be 40% of all CBs
but it shrunk to 10% in the new millennium (see the Appendix).
D. Age
The technology of the operating mechanism is changing to-
ward spring mechanisms: from a portion of 40% in the early In the third inquiry, failures have been collected per year of
days to 60% these days. The dominant position of hydraulic production, so that the MaF development by age can be cal-
drives in the early days (50%) has over time been reduced to culated. For the population installed after 1978, the tendency
less than 20%; about the same portion as pneumatic drives. In shown in Fig. 5 is expected to come from both improvements in
Fig. 3, the MaF-rate of the hydraulic and pneumatic drives has the technology of younger CBs and an aging and/or wear effect
decreased dramatically and is these days comparable with, or with older CBs.
better than, the MaF-rate of spring-driven mechanisms (column Aging, wear, and corrosion have been reported as the most
after 1999). On average, all technologies show great improve- important causes of MaF (almost 50%). Design faults, manufac-
ments compared to the second inquiry. The MaF-rate decreased turing faults, and incorrect maintenance together are mentioned
from 0.29 per 100 CBY in the former survey to 0.14 per 100 as causes for 15% of the MaF.
CBY in the last survey, related to MaF for which the operating There is a slightly better performance of the CBs installed
mechanism is responsible. For the entire population of the third before 1979 in comparison to those installed between 1979 and
inquiry, the spring drive performs the best (Fig. 3, 2nd column 1983. This may be explained by the high probability that a major
3rd inquiry). overhaul or maybe even replacement of the worst breakers has
The overall MaF rate improved largely from the first (1.58 per taken place, thus improving the average performance of the sub-
100 CBY) to the second (0.67 per 100 CBY) and again to the population, manufactured before 1979.
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY

TABLE II
PERCENTAGE OF MAF RATE AND MIF RATE PER
FAILURE MODE, THIRD INQUIRY

Fig. 5. Third inquiry MaF-rate per voltage class and by year of production.

TABLE I
PERCENTAGE OF FAILURES RELATED TO THE SUBASSEMBLY AND
COMPONENT RESPONSIBLE, 2ND INQUIRY

tightness. It is also related to the operating mechanism and

the electric control system. These two subassemblies led to
failure modes, such as Does not open or close on command;
E. Components
consuming 45% of MaF. With Locked in open or closed
As reported in the first survey, half of the failures occurred in position, it sums up to 70% of MaF. As expected, the MaF
the components at service voltage and one-third in the operating rate with the mode Does not open or close on command is
mechanism. That changed with single pressure -gas tech- proportional to the number of operating cycles per year and
nology. The subassemblies and components responsible for the with Locked in open or closed position, the relationship is
MaF give the same distribution for the third as for the second in- more indifferent, although a light proportionality can be seen
quiry. In Table I, details are given as reported for the second in- (table 257 [5]).
quiry with the operating mechanism being responsible for most Another 10% of MaF is for dielectric breakdowns and al-
failures, both major and minor failures. Minor failures have not most 10% for loss of mechanical integrity. Four percent of the
been analyzed in absolute numbers, as with the third inquiry, MaF (6.5% in the second enquiry) resulted in an explosion or
based on the response per country, wide underreporting of the fire; mainly in relation to dielectric breakdowns and mainly with
many MiF is assumed. live-tank breakers. There is an intriguing distribution of the ex-
plosions among the applications of the CB (Fig. 6). CBs applied
F. Failure Modes in transformer bays seem to perform well, while CBs applied to
The failure modes or failure characteristics are quite similar switch shunt reactors and capacitor banks show a higher explo-
for the second and the third inquiry. Since the third survey gives sion risk. However, it should be noted that the probability of an
more details, these failure modes are listed in Table II. explosion is 0.01 per 100 CBY for the entire population.
Most failures occurred in the operating mechanism, fol- Only a small part of the major failures has the characteristic
lowed by the electrical control and auxiliary system (MaF) and Does not break the current: 1.9% or 0.006 per 100 CBY. So
high-voltage parts (MiF). The last item seems to be related the mechanical performance seems to need the most attention
to -gas tightness as the dominant MiF-mode is Small from the point of view of reliability. However, the probability
-gas leakage. Locked in open or closed position is that a CB has to interrupt, for instance, a short-line fault, is or-
a dominant MaFmode, that is mainly related to -gas ders of magnitude lower than the frequency of regular operating
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JANSSEN et al.: INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS ON CB RELIABILITY DATA 5

However, this is the average of the answers per MaF-card and

these answers have been differentiated per application, as shown
in Fig. 1 (i.e., tables 259 and 260 of [5]). By using the aver-
ages per application (table 260 of [5]), multiplying them by
the number of CB-years reported for that application (table 25
[5]) and dividing the outcome by the total population in CBY,
the total average becomes 42 operating cycles per year; exactly
the same number as with the second inquiry. Furthermore, there
are no circumstances why the average number of cycles per year
should have been changed, or anyways increased, from inquiry
to inquiry.
Based on these results for a 25-year period of service, these
days seen as the interval between major overhaul, the majority
Fig. 6. Third inquiry subpopulations and explosions per application in percent.
of CBs has to perform 2000 operating cycles or less. Therefore,
the mechanical endurance type test in the standards has been
specified as 2000 operating cycles or operating sequences, as is
called in the IEC standards. That is to say for CBs applied to
normal service conditions, class M1. For special applications,
such as shunt reactor switching, an extended mechanical en-
durance-type test with 10 000 CO-cycles has been specified in
IEC Standard 62271-100 [6]: class M2.
The mechanical endurance-type test is relatively easy to per-
form and gives a very good quality check. Without energizing
the high-voltage parts, the required number of operating cy-
cles is performed under varying conditions of auxiliary voltage
and operating pressure. Maintenance has to be performed to the
manufacturers instructions; that is, according to the manual.
These days, maintenance during 2000 CO operations will be nil.
The mechanical, dielectric, and electrical characteristics after
the endurance test have to be identical to those before the test
Fig. 7. Third inquiry MaF-rate per failure mode including the fire/explosion or at least within the tolerances as stated in the manual. This ap-
rate.
plies for the primary contacts as well as the auxiliary contacts.
-tightness also has to be checked.
For reliability assessment and to investigate the weak spots
cycles. Still, reliable fault clearing is a very important duty of a and endurance limits, manufacturers will test prototypes and
CB, depending both on its capability to interrupt fault currents subassemblies to a much larger number of cycles; up to tens of
and its reliability to Open and close on command. thousands. Such development tests will give proper information
about maintenance intervals and actions [8].
The widely accepted hypothesis is that as long as the mechan-
IV. MECHANICAL ENDURANCE
ical behavior of a CB is identical to that of the type tested sample
At the first and second international inquiry, a number of and the -gas density is within the operating tolerances, the
questions have been put forward about the number of operating CB will perform as specified in the standards. Maintenance is
cycles per year. The outcome showed that 90% of the CBs are therefore mainly focused on the mechanical characteristics.
asked upon to perform 80 operating cycles (one open and one
close operation) per year or less (i.e., the 90% percentile of the
number of operating cycles per year [2], [3]). V. SUBSTATION AND SYSTEM RELIABILITY STUDIES
The average number of operating cycles per year from the
second inquiry was higher than that from the first inquiry: 42 The results of the CB reliability studies are also valuable for
versus 26.5 CO-operations per year. substation and system reliability investigations. In [7], the in-
The reason for the difference is that in the first inquiry, the formation of the first and second inquiry has been used to cal-
average has been determined by weighting each answer on the culate per voltage class the number of MaFs per command to
population cards equally and in the second inquiry, each answer open/close and the number of other MaFs per year. For substa-
has been weighted by the number of related CBs [7]. At the third tion and system reliability studies, such a distinction is neces-
international inquiry, the average number of operating cycles sary, as reliability engineers want to know the probability of a
has not been collected, but could be estimated roughly by the failure per command (especially for protection functions) and
information per the MaF report. The analysis reported in [5] per time period. The same approach will be followed to cal-
gives an average of 69 operating cycles per year, far more than culate the MaF rates with the information of the third world-
the 42 found with the second survey. wide inquiry. But since no information about failure modes per
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY

TABLE III
CB RELIABILITY DATA FOR SYSTEM STUDIES, ALL VOLTAGES 63 kV

Fig. 8. Third inquiry comparison of the reported and calculated MaF rate per
application.
Fig. 9. Third inquiry MaF-rate per 10 000 operating cycles for different appli-
cations and the total population (All).
voltage class has been collected, no differentiation per voltage
class will be made.
The average number of operating cycles per year is crucial rates calculated with 26.5 operating cycles per year (the bold
for the calculations. The failure figures will be calculated by line in Table III) seem to fit better than those calculated with 42
using both 26.5 from the 1st and 42 from the 2nd/3rd inquiry, operating cycles, that is to say, for the applications with a large
since there are arguments for either weighting method. Yet, the number of operating cycles per year as shown in Fig. 8.
information for the number of cycles per year is collected by Fig. 2 could also be used to plot per application the MaF rate
population cards (26.5) and not per CB (42). per 10 000 operating cycles. Fig. 9 shows these MaF rates, to-
A comparison of the number of MaFs per operating cycle and gether with rates for the total population (All), using the average
per year, for all voltages, between the first, second, and third number of cycles per year of 69, 42, and 26.5, as discussed in
inquiry can be learned from Table III. The last but one column this and the former section. The MaF rate All has to be close
gives the overall MaF rate per year. All of the other columns to to those of the first 7 (or 5) columns. Thus, the average number
the left are related to MaF with a command to close or to open, of operating cycles will be 30 to 40 per year.
resulting into a total MaF per command in the third column from
the right. The last column gives the MaF per year for failures
VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS
without a command to close or open (i.e., the second from right
column minus the third from right column). The reliability of a high-voltage CB is expressed with respect
In order to calculate the MaF rate per operating cycle (com- to the cessation of one of its fundamental functions (i.e., an
mand), the failure mode Locked in open or closed position is MaF) and other failures (i.e., MiF). The definitions, as included
divided among the failures without command (50%) and Does these days in the standards, have been given. The results of three
not open on command (13%), Does not close on command worldwide surveys have been compared, and a steady improve-
(37%). This procedure is the same as applied to the second in- ment of the CBs reliability can be noticed from 1.58 to 0.67 to
quiry [7]. The failure modes Unknown, Other, and Loss of 0.30 MaF per 100 CBY. For the third inquiry, GIS and ME CBs
mechanical integrity are proportionally divided over the other show 50% better performance (0.14 MaF per 100 CBY) and
modes. live-tank CBs have 50% worse performance (0.48 MaF per 100
When comparing the failure modes, much better performance CBY) as shown in [5, Table 227]. Despite great improvements,
can be noticed from the first to second and from the second to most failures are still related to the operating mechanism.
third survey. Only the number of failures Does not open on For modern CBs, the reliability can be expressed in rough
command has not improved that much from the second to third numbers as follows.
inquiry. Once per 50 000 commands to open, a CB will fail to open.
When the MaF rates with and without a command for the third Once per 500 000 commands to open, it will not break the
inquiry are plotted in Fig. 2, it can be noticed that the failure current.
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JANSSEN et al.: INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS ON CB RELIABILITY DATA 7

[4] M. Runde, Failure frequencies for high-voltage circuit breakers, dis-

connectors, earthing switches, instrument transformers, and gas-insu-
lated switchgear, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 529530,
Jan. 2013.
[5] CIGRE Working Group A3.06, Final report of 20042007 interna-
tional enquiry on reliability of high voltage equipment, Part 2reli-
ability of high voltage circuit breakers, CIGRE Tech. Brochure
510, Oct. 2012.
[6] High-Voltage Switchgear and ControlgearPart 100: Alternating
Current Circuit-Breakers, IEC Standard 62271-100, IEC, 2012, Ed.
2.1.
[7] C. R. Heising, E. Colombo, A. L. J. Janssen, J. E. Maaskola, and E.
Dialynas, Final report on high-voltage circuit breaker reliability data
for use in substation and system studies, presented at the CIGRE SC
13 Session 1994, 1994.
Fig. 10. Information from the third inquiry on the percentage of enclosure type [8] A. L. J. Janssen, C. R. Heising, G. Sanchis, and W. Lanz, Mechanical
per manufacturing period [5]: Figure 296. endurance, reliability compliance and environmental testing of high
voltage circuit-breakers, presented at the CIGRE SC 13 Session 1996,
1996.
Once per 25 000 commands to close, it will not close or
make the current.
Once per 500 years, a CB will show another MaF. Anton Janssen (M95) was Transmission Manager
Once per 3000 years, a CB will show a dielectric failure for a power company in the Netherlands. He then be-
(different from Does not break the current). came Manager of the KEMA High-Power Labora-
tory, Arnhem, the Netherlands, in 1993 and became
Once per 10 000 years, a CB may show a fire or explosion. an Asset Manager in 2002 with Liander, a distribu-
With respect to definitions: MaFs are defined from the per- tion system operator (DSO) (electricity and gas) in
spective of the CB fundamental functions, but from a system the Netherlands.
Mr. Janssen is a member of CIGRE SC 13/A3, and
perspective, sometimes such a failure is not interfering with active as special reporter and was convenor of several
the system fundamental functions. Utilities therefore may face working groups, dealing with reliability (13-06), life
problems when linking their failure reporting, that is related to management, asset management, distributed genera-
tion, long-distance transmission, and short/long line faults. Presently he is Sec-
system MaFs, directly to the information asked by CIGRE. retary of Working Group A3.22/28, dealing with the requirements for ultra-high
As aging, wear, and corrosion have been reported as the most voltage substation equipment. He was also a member of several standardization
important cause of MaF (almost 50%), CIGRE has established working groups, both for IEC and IEEE.
two new working groups to study the effects of aging and the
effect of overstressing old equipment in greater depth.
Dirk Makareinis is with Siemens, Berlin, Germany,
APPENDIX and has more than 30 years of experience in the field
of high-voltage circuit breakers, especially as a man-
Fig. 10 gives the enclosure technologies of the total popu- ager responsible for mechanical testing. Currently, he
lation of CBs involved in the third inquiry per production pe- is Manager of the Sales and Order Processing Depart-
riod and as a percentage of the CBs manufactured in that pe- ment for high voltage circuit breakers (Europe).
Mr. Makareinis was/is an active member of sev-
riod. Live- and dead-tank breakers are defined as a CB with eral working groups within CIGRE: life management
the interrupters in a tank insulated from earth or in an earthed of CBs, reliability of high-voltage equipment (A3-
metal tank, respectively. A GIS breaker is part of a bay which is 06), and management of aging high-voltage equip-
ment and possible mitigation techniques (A3-29).
completely characterized by insulation and by an
earthed metal enclosure (including hybrid switchgear). Single
or three phase GIS is related to the CB compartment.
Carl-Ejnar Slver received the Ph.D. degree in elec-
ACKNOWLEDGMENT trical power engineering from Chalmers University
of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1975
This paper is a summary of the work that during the last He joined ASEA (later ABB), Ludvika, Sweden,
decades has been performed by three CIGRE working groups: becoming the Manager for high-voltage cir-
cuit-breaker development, design, testing, applica-
the first and second WG 13-06 and WG A3-06.
tion, and technical marketing. He retired from ABB
in 2010 and joined STRI, Ludvika, as a Consulting
REFERENCES Engineer. In 2000, he was appointed Associate
[1] IEC High-Voltage Switchgear and ControlgearPart 1: Common Professor at Chalmers University of Technology.
Specifications, IEC Standard 62271-1, 2011, Ed. 1.1. Prof. Slver was a member of CIGRE SC 13/A3
[2] G. Mazza and R. Michaca, The first international enquiry on circuit- and an active member or convenor of a number of working groups: switching of
breaker failures and defects in service, Electra, no. 79, pp. 2191, Dec. small inductive currents, switching test methods, and reliability of high-voltage
1981. equipment (former convenor of Working Group A3.06). He was secretary of
[3] CIGRE Working Group 13.06, Final report of the second international IEC TC17 and SC17A from 1982 to 1986, and later Chairman of the working
enquiry on high voltage circuit-breaker failures and defects in service, groups on electromagnetic compatibility for high-voltage switchgear, and on
CIGRE Tech. Brochure 83, Jun. 1994. electrical endurance of high-voltage circuit breakers.