真空开关技术的发展尽管已有一百余年历史，然而近年来新技术的出现对未来输配电系统发展具有显著影响。首先，对于《京都议定书》认定的最强温室效应气体——SF6，真空开关相比SF6气体开关具有天然环保的技术特点，其在输电系统的应用可大幅降低SF6温室效应气体用量。其次，相比于现有其他交流故障电流开断技术，真空开关可实现故障电流的快速开断。目前，采用电磁斥力机构驱动的快速真空断路器，可将交流短路故障电流的开断时间，由其他常规开断技术所需的三个短路电流周波缩短至短路电流的首半波内，达到理论开断时间极限，对电网暂态运行稳定性的增强、超特高压线路输送容量的提升、输电走廊利用率的提高等具有显著意义。第三，现阶段基于快速真空开关技术的输配电设备，在直流断路器、故障电流限制、电能质量改善、发电机断路器等技术领域已获得应用，在电力系统稳定运行、节能降耗等方面，取得了显著经济社会收益。此外，借助快速真空开关合分闸时间分散性低的特点，电力系统可实现开关的精准相控操作，大幅降低系统电磁暂态冲击，实现电能传输与控制的平稳过渡。相控快速真空开关技术有望改变未来电力系统的'基因'。

Even though switching in vacuum is a technology with almost 100 years of history, its recent developments are still changing the future of power transmission and distribution systems. First, current switching in vacuum is an eco-friendly technology compared to switching in SF6 gas, which is the strongest greenhouse gas according to the Kyoto Protocol. Vacuum, an eco-friendly natural medium, is promising for reducing the usage of SF6 gas in current switching in transmission voltage. Second, switching in vacuum achieves faster current interruption than existing alternating current (AC) switching technologies. A vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) that uses an electromagnetic repulsion actuator is able to achieve a theoretical limit of AC interruption, which can interrupt a short-circuit current in the first half-cycle of a fault current, compared to the more common three cycles for existing current switching technologies. This can thus greatly enhance the transient stability of power networks in the presence of short-circuit faults, especially for ultra- and extra-high-voltage power transmission lines. Third, based on fast vacuum switching technology, various brilliant applications emerge, which are benefiting the power systems. They include the applications in the fields of direct current (DC) circuit breakers (CBs), fault current limiting, power quality improvement, generator CBs, and so forth. Fast vacuum switching technology is promising for controlled switching technology in power systems because it has low variation in terms of opening and closing times. With this controlled switching, vacuum switching technology may change the ″gene″ of power systems, by which power switching transients will become smoother.