Reference Designation System

Reference Designation System (RDS) provides fundamental rules and methods for structuring information. By applying these rules, even very large sets of information which describe complex systems can be managed efficiently.

In particular, the IEC 81346 RDS standard has been developed to provide designation guidance on industrial systems, installations and equipment, and industrial products. It is a standard used all over the world in order to have coding principles for structuring of systems. Additionally, it provides standardized letter codes for a variety of technical objects and helps to create clear labeling which can be understood across different fields.

In short, by incorporating the IEC 81346 Standard, you can create one common language that is comprehensible across your organization and beyond.

Benefits of Reference Designation System for Power Plants

Reference Designation System for Power Plants (RDS-PP) is a designation language which is applied in the wind industry worldwide. The elements and rules of this language similarly follow international standards and assigning them to a wind power plant have a number of benefits:

• you will have consistent communication not only within your wind power plant but also among all the players of wind industry anywhere in the world. In other words, your designations will be understood clearly across all wind power plants in every country.

• you can systematically and accurately record as well as evaluate data since you will have clearly structured and precise system of identification which provides the needed basis for this. Importantly, the data can then be compared across different wind power plants.

• you will be able to assign information to the individual components of the plant or wind turbine. This ensures a well-structured referencing of information and RDS-PP shows the way to this information. 

• by systematic, uniform, and clearly structured classification of the components of a wind power plant you will be able to collect and assign information easily and precisely. 

Difference between RDS-PP and the new RDS-PS

In 2022 the update to the reference designation technical specification, IEC 81346-10 RDS-PS was published. While having all the above-mentioned benefits and implications, there are some significant differences between Power Plants and Power Systems standards, that should be considered. 

Notably, RDS-PS has important advantages and forms fundamental basis for asset management systems like our Asset Integrity Hub (AIH), where you can perform advanced analysis and as such gain great awareness and control of your assets, and finally, achieve cost savings. Here is the table presenting the differences of the two standards. 

*You can find all the mentioned standards here: Homepage | IEC.

How we help you in your RDS and data management journey

In order to operate a wind power plant efficiently you need to obtain consistent information for the entire plant. Based on that data you will be able to make reliable conclusions about the state of your assets, their performance and component failure rates. This is one of the main challenges in the wind industry. Once you have the wholistic information on your assets, you will be able to effectively organize operation management in terms of budget planning, material and labor planning, history record managing, etc. Simply put, you will have a reliable basis in order to make decisions.

Likewise, to help you make the right and informed decisions related to your assets and their effective management, we have made sure the principles of RDS lay the foundation for our AIH software. We have created a generic and scalable solution which is highly flexible for you to be able to collect, record, evaluate, analyze, personalize, integrate and compare data, and subsequently actively make decisions. 

Further, in AIH your data is structured in compliance with IEC international standard, highly secure and all available in one place.

Request a demo to see in person how we can help you speak a common language and get the most of your data.