The former VGB Guideline VGB-R 170 A1e “Measures for the avoidance and handling of instrumentation and control equipment failures” was used since 2005 for the support during the specification and assessment of control and instrumentation systems with regard to their robustness against failures at increasing use of standard IT components and IT networks.

The Technical Committee “Electrical Engineering and I&C” as responsible committee, had to decide if this guideline shall further have validity, whether it should be recommended for use and to what extent, if necessary, a revision must be made. As a result of the examination, the content use and the validity of the application was fully confirmed. Only the issue information security (IT security) resulted in the need in adjustments arising from new regulations in laws and related regulations. The VGB office was requested to check and to adopt additionally the topicality from formal aspects.

This new VGB Standard VGB-S-170-12 “Measures for the avoidance and handling of instrumentation and control equipment failures” is based on the previous work and is a component of the VGB works for control technology in power plants (category VGB-S-170).