VGB POWERTECH

THE VGB
REFERENCE
DESIGNATION
SYSTEM FOR
POWER PLANTS
RDS-PP
WIND POWER PLANTS

Designation categories for wind

power plants using RDS-PP
What are the advantages of a standardised
designation system?
Industrial plants such as wind power plants have been
given identifiers for many years. Time and again there
have been discussions about how a universal designation system would have significant economical
benefits:

It is the basis for standardised communication

between all those involved in planning, construction and operation
It is internationally valid, regardless of linguistic and technological boundaries
It applies for all phases of a plants life from
development to dismantling
It is the point of reference for the structured
allocation of technical data and documents to
the components of a system
It is prerequisite for the systematic evaluation
of operational, maintenance or cost data of a
complete plant or its components

In order to achieve these advantages, it is necessary

to observe the following:

The designation must correspond to international standards.

The designation must be applied in a consistent manner for every project.
An industry solution for detail designation is
better than individual, company-specific solutions.

Designation according to RDS-PP , the Reference

Designation System for Power Plants, has already
prevailed in the wind industry. It is based on the DIN
EN 81346 and DIN ISO/TS 16952-10 standards, and
has been refined by the VGB B101 and B102 standards.

RDS-PP - the designation system

for wind power plants
The more precisely the individual elements of a wind
power plant are labelled, the greater the probability
that a common understanding will continue to exist
even if there is a change of plant owner or operator.
This is why in the new edition of VGB S-823-32 RDSPP Application Guideline for Wind Power Plants, VGB
has taken special care to ensure that, as far as is
possible, a designation has been defined for all types
of components. The resulting dictionary for the designation of a complete wind power plant is the basis for
an industry-wide, standardised coding system.
In order to be able to really achieve the abovementioned benefits, it is recommended that this dictionary
always be stipulated as the basis for invitations for
tenders for wind power plant projects.
It is also possible to subsequently re-code existing
wind power plants that have not as yet been consistently and completely labelled, and create the prerequisite for a future standardised and systematic allocation of data.
Trademark protection for RDS-PP

RDS-PP is a registered trademark of VGB Power

Tech. The trademark has been registered in order to
exclude any other parallel development of designation
systems using the name RDS-PP. The registered
trademark RDS-PP is thus also assurance of future
quality. Any products based on RDS-PP may only
bear this seal of quality if they have been developed
in accordance with RDS-PP rules as set out in the
corresponding
VGB
publications.
Designation
schemes that do not, or only partially, correspond to
these rules may not use the RDS-PP seal.

What the RDS-PP Guideline

contains
Foundation and application of RDS-PP

The first part of the RDS-PP Application Guideline

establishes the rules, principles and elements of the
designations by practitioners for practitioners. It describes the functions and the aim of the designations
as well as their inclusion in the project development.

The second part of the guideline specially addresses

the needs of wind power plants. It describes their
most important main systems, such as the wind turbine itself, but also such components as the transformer station or communication equipment.

Systems, basic functions and product classes

Every main system in a wind power plant consists of
systems and sub-systems, whose functions and system limits are shown in detail.

The sub-systems are in turn divided into basic functions and product classes to fulfil their tasks. Each
basic function and the most important product receive
a specific designation, e.g. Motor 1 of the fourth yaw
drive of Wind Turbine 3 has the designation
=G003 MDL10 MZ040 -MA001.
All designations used in the guideline are summarised
in a separate file.

Using RDS-PP in
asset management systems
A major challenge in managing wind power plants is
receiving consistent information for the whole wind farm
in order to be able to draw dependable conclusions
about the condition of the plant, its use and reliability
as well as about component failure rates. Such information serves as the basis for efficient plant management,
particularly with regard to budget planning, material und
work planning, keeping a lifecycle file, etc.
The acquisition of this information requires a uniform
structuring and unambiguous identification of the individual plant components that is applicable regardless of
country or turbine type. Different degrees of information
detail are required for the various tasks involved in asset management: for example, controlling tasks require
information relating to the wind power plant as a whole.
For planning and procurement on the other hand it must
be possible to provide information right down to component level.

With RDS-PP these different information hierarchies

can be clearly structured and unambiguously addressed.

RDS-PP is also used for signal designation.

The path to the RDS-PP Guideline

The RDS-PP Application Guideline is available from
VGB PowerTech, as single user of corporate licence in
print or eBook form.
Any questions about RDS-PP ?
The VGB office and the experts from the VGBs Reference Designation and Plant Documentation working
group are at your disposal should you have any questions or require further
information:

Contact:
VGB PowerTech
Klinkestrasse 27-31
45136 Essen
Tel.: +49 201 8128-247
andreas.boeser @vgb.org