This document can also be used as a reference standard for product committees producing product standards for

• adjustable speed electric power drive systems (PDS),
• standalone uninterruptible power systems (UPS), and
• stabilized DC power supplies.

For PECS for which no product standard exists, this document provides minimum requirements for safety aspects. 

This document has the status of a group safety publication in accordance with IEC Guide 104 for power electronic converter systems and equipment for solar, wind, tidal, wave, fuel cell or similar energy sources.

According to IEC Guide 104, one of the responsibilities of technical committees is, wherever applicable, to make use of basic safety publications and/or group safety publications in the preparation of their product standards.

This document

• establishes a common terminology for safety aspects relating to PECS and equipment,
• establishes minimum requirements for the coordination of safety aspects of interrelated parts within a PECS,
• establishes a common basis for minimum safety requirements for the PEC portion of products that contain PEC,
• specifies requirements to reduce risks of fire, electric shock, thermal, energy and mechanical hazards, during use and operation and, where specifically stated, during service and maintenance,
• specifies minimum requirements to reduce risks with respect to pluggable and permanently connected equipment, whether it consists of a system of interconnected units or independent units, subject to installing, operating and maintaining the equipment in the manner prescribed by the manufacturer,
• establishes an arc fault rating label requirement with testing instructions for PEC and PECS, and
• covers power electronic converters and systems in open type design, which are catalog (pre-defined commercially available) power electronic converters and systems or engineered solutions from same.

This document does not cover

• telecommunications apparatus other than power supplies to such apparatus,
• functional safety aspects as covered by, for example, IEC 61508 (all parts),
• electrical equipment and systems for railways applications and electric vehicles, and
• power electronic converters and systems in open type design, which are – in their major part – dimensioned, designed and constructed according to the user’s individual requirements and specifications and follow power installation standards, for example IEC 61936-1.