VGB-Standard

Reference Designation System

for Power Plants RDS-PP®
Letter Code for
Power Plant Systems
(System Key)
4th revised edition 2016 (Revision c)
(former VGB-B 101e)

VGB-S-821-00-2016-06-EN
VGB-Standard
Reference Designation System
for Power Plants RDS-PP®
Letter Code for
Power Plant Systems
(System Key)

VGB-S-821-00-2016-06-EN
(former VGB-B 101e)
4th revised edition 2016 (Revision c)

Publisher:
VGB PowerTech e.V.

Publishing house:
VGB PowerTech Service GmbH
Verlag technisch-wissenschaftlicher Schriften
Deilbachtal 173, 45257 Essen, Germany

Tel.: +49 201 8128-200

Fax: +49 201 8128-302
E-mail: mark@vgb.org

ISBN 978-3-86875-945-7 (Print, Hardcover)

ISBN 978-3-86875-973-0 (Print, Folder)
ISBN 978-3-86875-946-4 (eBook)

All rights reserved. VGB PowerTech

www.vgb.org
 Public License Document

Excerpt with special license for distribution/

Auszug zur freien Weitergabe

Important notice: Any further use of the original complete version (not this excerpt),
e.g. in publications or digital systems, requires a separate license agreement
with VGB PowerTech.
Please contact us at mark@vgb.org.
Wichtiger Hinweis: Jegliche Form der weiteren Nutzung der kompletten Ausgabe
(nicht dieses Auszugs), z.B. in Publikationen oder digitalen Systemen,
bedarf einer separaten Lizenzvereinbarung mit VGB PowerTech.
Kontakt und Rückfragen an mark@vgb.org.

Public License Document

Freie Lizenz

Copying and distribution allowed Network access allowed

Kopie und Weitergabe erlaubt Einstellen in Netzwerke erlaubt

All other rights reserved.

Alle weiteren Rechte vorbehalten.
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Copyright
VGB-Standards hereafter referred to as “work”, including all articles and images, are
protected by international copyright. VGB PowerTech owns and controls the copy-
right.
The term “work“ covers the publication at hand as printed hard copy and as digital-
ized version. The copyright covers the entire work and parts of it.
Any kind of use beyond the limits of copyright is prohibited without the prior written
consent of VGB PowerTech. Any unauthorized reproduction, translation, digitalization
and modification will constitute an infringement of copyright.

Disclaimer
VGB-Standards are recommendations, the application of which is optional. VGB-
Standards represent the state of the art at the time of publication. No claim regarding
its completeness and correctness is made as a matter of principle.
Application of VGB-Standards is carried out at the user's own responsibility and risk.
VGB PowerTech accepts no legal liability in the event of any claim relating to or re-
sulting from the application of VGB-Standards.

Treatment of proposing amendments

Amendments can be sent to the e-mail address vgb.standard@vgb.org. The sub-
ject line should contain the exact specification of the relevant document in order to
clearly assign the e-mail content to the appropriate VGB-Standard.

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Foreword

The VGB Working Panel “Reference Designation and Plant Documentation”, which is
attended by power plant operators and maintenance contractors as well as designers
and suppliers of power plants, prepared this guideline.
The tasks of this working panel also include the preparation and maintenance of dis-
cipline-specific and power plant type-specific guidelines as well as the letter codes for
power plant systems (system key).
The members of the Working Panel represent the interests of VGB PowerTech e.V.
in national and international standardization committees.
Staff members of the following companies listed below contributed to preparing the
“Letter Codes for Power Plant Systems” guideline:
 ABB AG
 GE Power AG
 EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG
 Ingenieurbüro gabo gmbh
 Kraftwerksschule e.V.
 RWE Power AG
 RWE Technology International GmbH
 Siemens AG
 Uniper Technologies GmbH
 Vattenfall Europe Generation AG
 VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH

The list makes no claim to distinctiveness and legal unambiguousness of the compa-
ny names given.

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Authors
The following authors actively participated in the elaboration of this Guideline

Name Company

Wolfgang Ernst Siemens AG

Andreas Menger Ingenieurbüro gabo GmbH
Heinz Müller IB Heinz Müller
Helmut Wank IB Helmut Wank

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Amendments
All Amendments, compared with Version VGB-B 101e: 2011-12 (3rd revised edition),
are made recognizable in the text passage with an outer frame line and in the ap-
pendix with the letter "c".

Previous editions
 First edition VGB-B 101e: 2007-05
 2nd revised edition VGB-B 101e: 2010-04
 3rd revised edition VGB-B 101e: 2011-12

The VGB Working Panel “Reference Designation and Plant Documentation” is re-
sponsible for edition and update of this guideline.

Essen, June 2016

VGB PowerTech e.V.

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Introduction
The basic international standards for reference designation provide users with gen-
erally applicable general rules and letter codes for main classes for the designation of
technical objects and their documentation.
The standard for power plants establishes sector-specific specifications based on the
basic standards, and also includes options to enable application for different power
plant types.
The fulfilment of specific designation tasks and addressing of collections of infor-
mation necessitates coding systems which establish a relationship between the ob-
ject names and letter codes.
IEC 81346-2 provides non-sector-specific binding letter codes for main classes and
subclasses for technical systems and components, classifying the objects according
to purpose and task.
For the designation of power plant systems, table 3 of IEC 81346-2 provides a
framework for the designation of “infrastructure objects”. This VGB-Standard,
VGB-S-821-00, assigns the power-plant-specific systems to letter codes based
on this framework.
The relationships between the documents for designation tasks and the relative posi-
tion of VGB-S-821-00 with respect to these are shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1 - Relationships between designation standards, guidelines, application

guidelines.

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Content

1  Scope ......................................................................................................... 9 

2  Normative references ............................................................................. 10 

3  Terms and definitions ............................................................................ 11 

4  Application for amendment ................................................................... 12 

5  Letter code .............................................................................................. 13 

6  System key .............................................................................................. 14 

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1 Scope
This guideline has to be used to designate the systems in power plants.

It should be applied together with ISO/TS 81346-10

The guideline is valid for the data position of the system code according to the follow-
ing Figure:

Breakdown level 0 1 2
Section 0 1 2 3 4
Number and type of data
AN(N) AAA NN AA NNN
characters
Designation of data character H1, H2, H3 S1, S2, S3 S4, S5 T1, T2 T3, T4, T5

Prefix
Identification of
of main systems
according to project specific definition
Designation of systems
System key for Power Plants VGB-S-821-00
Sub-division of a system
e.g. in trains, sections
Classification of basic functions and product classes
Letter code VGB-B 102
Counting of basic functions and products

Allowed Prefix:

= Function
== Functional allocation
++ Location
+ Point of installation

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2 Normative references

IEC 81346-1
Industrial systems, installations and equipment and industrial products –
Structuring principles and reference designations
- Part 1: Basic rules

IEC 81346-2
Industrial systems, installations and equipment and industrial products –
Structuring principles and reference designations – Part 2: Classification
of objects and codes for classes

ISO 9000
Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary

ISO/TS 81346-10
Technical product documentation – Reference designation
system – Part 10: Power plants

ISO/TS 81346-3
Industrial systems, installations and equipment and industrial products – Structuring
principles and reference designations – Part 3: Applications rules for a reference
designation system

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3 Terms and definitions

For the use of this document, the terminology defined in ISO/TS 81346-10 shall be
applicable, as described in the following excerpts:

Infrastructure object
Type of objects classified according to infrastructure.
Note: Infrastructure is to be understood as the basic structure of an industrial
installation.
[IEC 81346-2, 5.3]

Object
Entity treated in the process of design, engineering, realization, operation, mainte-
nance and demolition.
[IEC 81346-1]

Structure
Organization of relations between objects of a system, based on constituency rela-
tions (consists of/is a part of).
[IEC 81346-1]

System
Set of interrelated objects considered in a defined context as a whole and separated
from their environment.
[IEC 81346-1]

Technical equipment
Physical or functional unit used to fulfil a technical task.
[ISO/TS 81346-10]

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4 Application for amendment

Requests for amendments of the System Key should be send to the VGB-Office by
stating the following information:
E-Mail: ak-ad@vgb.org

 Date
 Sender
- Name
- Company
- Phone
- E-mail

 Proposal of the amendment

- System key
- Denomination
- Short description or application example

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5 Letter code
The letter codes are specified on the established power plant structures in accordance
with the rules of IEC 81346-2, Table 3. Excerpt presented in Figure 2:
This Guideline uses established terms of the power plant terminology.

Code Object class definition

Objects for A Objects for overall management of other infrastructure objects.

common tasks

Objects for B Reserved for branch-related class-definitions

main-process
facilities to
U

Objects not V Objects for storage of material or goods

related to the
main process W Objects for administrative or social purposes or tasks

X Objects for fulfilling auxiliary purposes or tasks out with the process
(for example on a site, in a plant or building)

Y Objects for communication and information tasks

Z Objects for housing or enclosing technical systems or installations like

areas and buildings

Figure 2 – Main-classes of infrastructure objects according to IEC 81346-2, Table 3.

Rules for code letters which are not specified for the data positions S1, S2 and S3:
 “- reserved for later standardization - ”
These code letters are blocked until they are released for future applications.
Blocked code letters are redefined exclusively by the VGB Working Panel
“Reference Designation and Plant Documentation”.
 “- available for use -”
In some instances, a generally applicable definition of code letters is not pos-
sible. Code letters marked as “available for use” may be used without re-
strictions for the purposes specified for S1 and S2.
Details of application are to be agreed between the parties involved in the project in
accordance with ISO/TS 16952-10 Annex C.
Code Letters *I* and *O* are not allowed to be used!

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6 System key
The following list is arranged alphabetically in ascending order according to the sys-
tem key.

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