Schneider Electric is driving the transition to sustainable medium-voltage solutions across East Africa with its award-winning SM AirSeT pure-air switchgear. Over the past year, the region has seen strong uptake of this SF6-free technology as utilities, industrial facilities and infrastructure projects embrace solutions that enhance reliability while advancing decarbonisation and regulatory compliance.
SM AirSeT is part of Schneider Electric’s AirSeT family, and uses pure air instead of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), a greenhouse gas with 24 300 times the global warming potential of CO2. The technology offers an important option to organisations transitioning to low-carbon electrical networks without compromising safety or performance.
“From utilities expanding medium-voltage (MV) networks to data centres powering the digital economy, and from manufacturing plants to critical infrastructure like airports and seaports, customers are looking for solutions that combine reliability, safety and sustainability. SM AirSeT delivers on all fronts, offering a future-ready, SF6-free technology that helps businesses and public services meet rising energy demand while accelerating their decarbonisation journey,” says Symphrose Ochieng, infrastructure segment and power systems business leader at Schneider Electric East Africa.
Supporting growth sectors
Across East Africa, the need for more electrification is accelerating grid modernisation, decarbonisation, industrialisation and digitalisation efforts. These trends are driving strong demand for robust, sustainable MV distribution solutions. Schneider Electric’s SM AirSeT pure-air switchgear is engineered to support these priorities across multiple high-impact sectors, eliminating SF6 and enabling a greener energy transition.
Utilities and secondary distribution networks
SM AirSeT delivers a sustainable, regulation-proof solution for utilities seeking to modernise their MV networks. By replacing SF6 with pure air, it offers a future-ready alternative that aligns seamlessly with global and regional climate commitments, ensuring compliance as environmental regulations tighten.
Designed to support ambitious electrification goals, SM AirSeT is ideal for urban network extensions, rural electrification programmes and infrastructure upgrades in rapidly growing economies. It empowers utilities to expand their grids responsibly while helping governments achieve universal energy access and decarbonisation objectives, all without compromising reliability or operational efficiency.
Commercial buildings and data centres
SM AirSeT delivers safe, reliable MV distribution for high-availability environments such as data centres, hospitals, universities, real estate developments, and logistics hubs. These facilities are the backbone of the region’s digital economy where uninterrupted power is non-negotiable. With its digital-ready design, SM AirSeT goes beyond traditional switchgear, enabling smart monitoring, predictive maintenance and remote diagnostics. This advanced connectivity minimises downtime, optimises energy efficiency and ensures operational resilience, giving businesses the confidence to scale sustainably in a fast-evolving market.
Industrial facilities and manufacturing
SM AirSeT is engineered to meet the demands of East Africa’s rapidly expanding industrial base, serving sectors such as food and beverage, cement, textiles, and light manufacturing. These industries require uncompromising reliability and safety to keep mission-critical processes running smoothly.
By eliminating SF6 and leveraging pure-air technology, SM AirSeT delivers high operational continuity while supporting sustainability goals. Its robust design ensures long-term performance in challenging environments, helping manufacturers boost productivity, reduce environmental impact, and stay competitive in a market that values both efficiency and responibility.
Infrastructure and transport
As East Africa accelerates investments in transformative infrastructure, from airports and seaports to rail systems, the need for operational reliability and sustainability has never been greater. SM AirSeT offers a future-ready solution that enables electrification and seamless integration of renewable energy across these critical assets.
By replacing SF6 with pure air, it ensures compliance with stringent environmental standards while delivering uninterrupted power for complex, high-demand systems. While SM AirSeT sets a new benchmark for environmental responsibility and ease of deployment, it also delivers exceptional technical performance for diverse applications. Its modular, compact design provides flexibility for installations in space-constrained environments, while native digital capabilities enable real-time monitoring, smart grid integration and condition-based maintenance.
Built with high safety performance and arc-resistant design, SM AirSeT leverages decades of Schneider Electric’s MV expertise. Compatibility with familiar form factors, accessories and operating procedures ensures quick adoption with minimal retraining.
Schneider Electric’s AirSeT range, including SM AirSeT, has already helped customers avoid 1,7 million tons of CO2 emissions globally as of June 2025, an impact validated by third-party auditors through the Schneider Sustainability Impact framework.
“Phasing out SF6 is not just a technical achievement. It represents a major step in reducing Scope 3 emissions across the electrical distribution industry. For our customers across East Africa, this means they can deploy world-class medium MV equipment that aligns with global climate commitments and emerging regulatory frameworks” concludes Ochieng.
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