Deutsche Bahn carries around 4.8 billion passengers a year, and, as Germany’s national railway, the company has ambitious plans to decarbonize its network by 2040. ABB was awarded the contract to supply its PrimeGear ZX0 solution as part of the project to supply four charging substations dedicated to battery-powered trains for Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. PrimeGear replaces sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) with AirPlus, a sustainable gas mixture.

Although SF6 has a global warming potential (GWP) that’s 25,200 times that of CO2 and lasts around 3,200 years in the atmosphere, its excellent insulation qualities have meant it is still commonly used in electrical switchgear. As part of a 13 billion euro investment in its “Green Transformation,” PrimeGear will support Deutsche Bahn’s ambitious plans to decarbonize its network by 2040. It is a major milestone on the rail operator’s broader sustainability journey, which aims to create a greenhouse gas (GHG)-free rail network for future gen-erations.

This comes as the European Commission recently announced plans to ban SF6 from new medium-voltage electrical equipment from 2026 for applications up to 24 kV and 2030 for applications up to 52 kV.

The first installation of its kind in Europe, ABB’s PrimeGear ZX0 switchgear was chosen by lead contractor Rail Power Systems GmbH as part of a pilot pro-ject at charging substations in Heide, Tönning, and Husum. When used with AirPlus gas, PrimeGear ZX0 has a GWP of less than 1 — almost 100% lower than SF6.

“ABB’s SF6-free technology offers an interesting alternative to conventional assets, especially in terms of eliminating harmful greenhouse gases,” said Thomas Wehr, product manager, AC Railway Energy Systems at Rail Power Systems. “The switchgear can be integrated into our substation design without any problems.”

The integration of this digital-ready switchgear supports next-generation intel-ligence upgrades to further optimize efficiency and improve reliability. This presents a huge step forward in Deutsche Bahn’s road map toward a future-ready rail network.

In the unlikely event of a leak, ABB’s run-flat technology enables safe opera-tional continuity until repair or servicing work can be carried out, reducing the risk of costly downtime and delays to rail services. The switchgear’s compact, robust design also generates minimal heat and advances arc safety. The option-al integration of sensors and remote monitoring and diagnostics features allows real-time visibility of network operations for early fault detection, reliability, and planned maintenance. Together, these innovative features make for a re-duced footprint, smarter operation, and asset optimization.

“With the first regulatory ban due to come into effect in only three years, rail operators must start to seriously consider their own migration to SF6-free tech-nology,” said Harikishan Narayanan, global product group manager for gas insulated switchgear at ABB. “The good news is that ABB already offers a proven and highly effective eco-alternative. Our AirPlus run-flat technology offers similar performance properties to SF6 to enable continuous operations and advanced safety while reducing global warming impact by up to 100%. PrimeGear ZX0, when combined with monitoring and diagnostic features, also delivers smarter operation and reduced cost of ownership. As our joint project with RPS for Deutsche Bahn shows, the result is a reliable performance that is not only better for the environment but also better for business.”