With the new standards on functional safety on the basis of EN 61508, functional safety management was introduced for the for the device requirements in safety functions. These EN standards provide considerable scope for discretionary judgements by manufacturers and operators.
It is necessary to establish firm recommendations for the application of these standards in power plants. One of the objectives of the Project Goup on “Functional Safety” at VGB was therefore to provide assistance with this VGB-Standard. As the task at hand was to explain the background and application of certain areas of functional safety management, this VGB-Standard has not been published as an ordering guideline. In this context, it is incumbent upon all manufacturers and operators to integrate the requirements of this functional safety management in their processes.
The project group developed examples of a risk analysis of a steam boiler and pressure equipment plant, as as they were considered indispensable to clearly explain the application of the procedure. The recommendations do however require further review in the context of a functional safety managment system.
The VGB-Standard addresses both operators of thermal power plants and manufacturers, and is intended as an aid in applying the standards on functional safety.
We would like to ask you to forward your experience gained with the application of this standard as well as suggestions for improvement be reported to the VGB Secretariate for evaluation purposes. They may give rise to additions or amendments.

This edition is a draft, as EN 50156-1 is currently under revision.