The operation of numerous power plants has massively changed in the last years due to various external influences. In the majority of power plants continuous operation or operation with several thousand operating hours per year is no more the normal case. On the contrary, the number of plants with frequent standstills at unknown outage periods, but often required simultaneous start-up readiness has increased. Furthermore, a lot of power plants has been put in the so-called cold reserve or is increasingly at standstill during summer periods.

The subject of preservation or avoidance of damage-caused standstills and operational impairments has gained increasing importance for nearly every power plant user.

Due to these varying standstill scenarios different approaches and considerations are to be made to avoid damage on the one hand, but on the other hand the economic efficiency of these measures is to be taken into account.

Preservation is not only limited to the usual avoidance of corrosion in the water/steam cycle, but has to be extended, in dependence of the outage period, to all plant components and areas, such as the complete fuel supply chain, all water treatment systems, movable parts and lubricating systems as well as the complete fluegas side including all flue-gas treatment systems.

This 3rd edition of VGB-Standard VGB-S-116 (formerly VGB Guideline VGB-R 116) was revised in this respect and extended to provide all agencies/firms participating in preservation measures with comprehensive information on knowledge and methods to the state-of-the-art such that these agencies/firms are able to manage the complex preservation tasks.