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IEC Wind Turbine Standards

CONTENTS
List of IEC Wind IEC 61400-1 Wind Turbine Safety and
Turbine Standards Design
TC-88 Standards
Working Groups IEC 61400-1 Ed2 Wind Turbine Safety
Table: IEC Wind and Design
Energy Standards Revision
Order IEC Standards
IEC 61400-2 Small Wind Turbine Safety
AWEA's Role
IEC 61400-12 Power Performance

IEC 61400-11 Noise Measurement

IEC 61400-13 Mechanical Load

Measurements

IEC 61400-22 Wind Turbine

Certification

IEC 61400-23 Blade Structural Testing

IEC 61400-21 Power Quality

International standards are developed by the

International working groups of Technical Committee-88
Standards (TC-88) of the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC), the recognized international
Activities body for standards development activities.

AWEA is the recognized U.S. industry

organization for standards development and
maintains contact with the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards
development activities through the involvement
of staff members and industry representatives
on TC-88 standards subcommittees.

The status of the IEC standards is provided in

Table I.

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Table I
IEC Wind Energy Standards
Working Title Convener Start Finish Purpose Document
Group (Plan Number
or
Actual)
WG-1 Safety R. Sherwin, 09/1989 12/1993 Principal IEC 1400-1*
WG-2 Requirements AWEA, standard
WG-3 for Large USA defining
Wind Turbines design
requirements
WG-4 Small Wind F.Van 02/1992 01/1994 Principal IEC 1400-2*
Turbine Hulle, standard
Systems ECN, NL defining
design
requirements
for small
turbines
WG-5 Acoustic T.J. DuBois, 11/1992 09/1998 Defines IEC
Emission USA acoustic 1400-11*
Measurement measurements
Techniques methods
WG-6 Performance T. 11/1992 01/1998 Defines IEC
Measurement Pedersen, performance 1400-12*
Techniques Riso NL, measurement
Denmark tech- niques
WG-7 Revision of P.H. 03/1994 01/1999 Edition 2 of 1400-1 Ed2
IEC 1400-1 Madsen, IEC 1400-1
Riso NL,
DKr
WG-8 Blade D.van Delft, 03/1994 1999 Defines 1400-23
Structural TU Delft, methods for
Testing NL blade
structural
testing
WG-9 Wind Turbine J.McGuire, 10/1995 1999 Defines 1400-22
Certification Lloyds certifica-
Requirements Register, tion
UK requirements
(Harmonized
version of
several
European
standards.)
WG-10 Power Quality J.O.Tande, 02/1996 1999 Defines power 1400-21
Measurements Riso NL, quality
DK measurement
techniques

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WG-11 Structural F.Van 02/1996 1999 Defines 1400-13

Loads Hulle, methods
Measurement ECN, NL for measuring
operational
loads

*Published Standard

TC-88 This section provides brief summaries of IEC

activities. Standards are not available for use or
Standards application until they exist as approved "Draft
Working International Standards" or "International
Groups Standards." These documents should be ordered
from ANSI, citing the document number in Table
I and specifying whether the standard is draft or
final.

WG 1, 2, 3 Background - The first three TC-88 working

Safety of Wind groups (Safety Philosophy, Design, and
Installation and Operation) were originally
Turbine
chartered separately, but were combined when
Generating it became evident that their objectives and roles
Systems were interdependent.

Scope of Work - This international standard

deals with safety philosophy, quality assurance
and engineering integrity, and specifies
requirements for the safety of Wind Turbine
Generator Systems (WTGS), including design,
installation, maintenance, and operation under
specified environmental conditions. Its purpose
is to provide the appropriate level of protection
against damage from all hazards from these
systems during their planned lifetime. This
standard is concerned with all subsystems of
WTGS such as control and protection
mechanisms, internal electrical systems,
mechanical systems, support structures,
foundations and the electrical interconnection
equipment. The standard applies to 1) all sizes
of WTGS connected to electrical power networks
and 2) WTGS with swept area equal to or larger
than 40 m2.

Background - Standards for wind turbines with

WG4
swept areas under 40 square meters (m2) were
Safety
developed separately because of the unique
Requirements for control methods and features used by designers
Small Wind

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Turbines of these systems (such as foldable tails.) The

separate standard was developed to avoid
imposing costly requirements that would not
result in improved safety of the smaller systems,
which have different inherent risk factors than
larger systems.

Scope of Work - Deals with safety philosophy,

quality assurance, engineering integrity and
specifies requirements for the safety of small
wind turbine generators (SWTGS), including
design, installation, maintenance and operation
under specified external conditions. This
standard is concerned with all subsystems of
SWTGS such as protection mechanisms, internal
electrical systems, mechanical systems, support
structures, foundations and the electrical
interconnection with the load. The standard
applies to WTGS with swept area less than 40
m2 .

Contact - F.Van Hulle, ECN, The Netherlands

Background - This standard was developed to

WG5 provide a uniform methodology that will ensure
Acoustical consistency and accuracy in the measurement
Measurement and analysis of acoustic emissions by Wind
Techniques Turbine Generator Systems (WTGS). The
standard was prepared with the anticipation that
it would be applied by:

» The WTGS manufacturer striving to meet well

defined acoustic emission performance
requirements and/or a possible declaration
system;

» The WTGS purchaser in specifying such

performance requirements;

» The WTGS operator who may be required to

verify that stated, or required, acoustic
performance specifications are met for new or
refurbished units;

» The WTGS planner or regulator who must be

able to accurately and fairly define acoustical
emission characteristics of WTGS in response to

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environmental regulations or permit

requirements for new or modified installations.

Scope of Work - Presents sound measurement

procedures that enable noise emissions of a
wind turbine to be characterized. This involves
using measurement methods appropriate to
noise emission assessment at locations close to
the machine, in order to avoid errors due to
sound propagation, but far enough away to allow
for the finite source size. The procedures
described are different in some respects from
those that would be adopted for noise
assessment in community noise studies. The are
intended to facilitate characterization of wind
turbine noise with respect to a range of wind
speeds and directions and comparisons between
different wind turbines.

Contact - T.J. DuBois, DuBois and Associates, USA

Scope of Work - Specifies a procedure for

WG6 measuring the power performance
Power characteristics of wind turbine generator
Performance systems of all types and sizes connected to the
Measurement electric power network. It is applicable for both
Techniques the determination of the absolute power
performance characteristics of a WTGS and
relative differences among the power
performance characteristics of various WTGS
configurations.

The WTGS power performance characteristics

are defined by the measured power curve and
the estimated annual energy production (AEP).
The measured power curve is determined by
collecting simultaneous measurements of wind
speed and power output at the test site for a
period long enough to establish a statistically
significant database over a range of wind speeds
and under varying wind conditions. The AEP is
estimated by applying the measured power
curve to reference wind speed frequency
distributions, assuming 100% availability.

In 1995, participants in WG6 agreed to approve

the draft standard with the understanding that
extensions would be added to the scope of work.

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These extensions will handle the special

requirements of power performance testing of
small turbines, as well as testing of all turbines
in complex terrain and in wind farm
environments.

Contact: Troels Pedersen, Riso National

Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark

Background - Changes in the technology,

WG7 increasing proliferation of wind turbine
Safety of Wind installations, and an increased understanding of
Turbine Generator environmental load cases for wind turbines have
Systems (Revision necessitated a revision of the safety
of IEC 1440-1) requirements standards set forth by combined
working groups 1, 2, and 3.

Scope of Work - Deals with safety philosophy,

quality assurance and engineering integrity, and
specifies requirements for the safety of Wind
Turbine Generator Systems (WTGS), including
design, installation, maintenance, and operation
under specified environmental conditions. Its
purpose is to provide the appropriate level of
protection against damage from all hazards from
these systems during their planned lifetime. This
standard is concerned with all subsystems of
WTGS such as control and protection
mechanisms, internal electrical systems,
mechanical systems, support structures,
foundations and the electrical interconnection
equipment. The standard applies to WTGS with
swept area equal to or larger than 40 m2.

Contact - Peter H. Madsen, Riso National

Laboratory, Denmark

Background - NREL and many other wind

WG8 energy laboratories throughout the world are
Full Scale conducting static, dynamic fatigue, and modal
Structural Testing tests of full-scale wind turbine blades using
of Rotor Blades various test methods and configurations. This
for WTGS standard will help establish commonality among
these methods and will provide guidelines to
help ensure that results are comparable.

Scope of Work - This standard is intended to

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be used as a guideline for full scale testing of

rotor blades of a WTGS as a possible part of a
final design verification of the structural integrity
of the blade. The tests included are fatigue
tests, static tests, and modal tests. The standard
describes recommended practices to perform
various tests on full scale blades and gives
guidance on interpretation or evaluation of
results. It describes the blade and load data with
the appropriate format necessary to evaluate
the test results. Guidance is given on which
(partial) safety factors should be incorporated
during testing and evaluation.

Contact - Don van Delft, Delft University, The

Netherlands

Scope of Work - Develop guidelines for

WG9 certification and type approval of wind turbines
Certification using test data and analyses (scope of work
Standard under development).

Contact - John McGuire, Lloyds Register, UK

Background - Existing certification procedures

WG10 and other standards for wind turbines for grid
Power Quality connection do not deal with the requirements of
Requirements for the design of the turbine to minimize its effects
Grid Connected on the power quality of the electrical network.
Wind Turbines As the power capacity/penetration increases, an
evident need arises for a standardized
specification of the power quality characteristics
of the turbine output. and for defining
requirements to the wind turbine design

Scope of Work - To prepare a standard for

determining the characteristics of wind turbine
output, with respect to the impact on the power
quality in the public supply system, while
securing proper operation of the wind turbine

Contact - J.O. Tande, Riso National Laboratory,

Roskilde, Denmark

Scope of Work - Develop guidelines for

WG11 measuring loads on wind turbine structures
Load (scope of work under development).
Measurements for

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WTGS
Contact - F. Van Hulle, ECN, The Netherlands

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© 2002 by the American Wind Energy Association.
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Updated: October 03, 2002

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