IEC TS 62600-4:2020

IEC TS 62600-4 ®
Edition 1.0 2020-09
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Marine energy – Wave, tidal and other water current converters –
Part 4: Specification for establishing qualification of new technology

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
once a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or CISPR.

need further assistance, please contact the Customer Service

Centre: sales@iec.ch.
IEC TS 62600-4 ®
Edition 1.0 2020-09
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Marine energy – Wave, tidal and other water current converters –

Part 4: Specification for establishing qualification of new technology

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 27.140 ISBN 978-2-8322-8743-9

– 2 – IEC TS 62600-4:2020 © IEC 2020
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms,definitions and abbreviated terms . 7
3.1 Terms and definitions . 8
3.2 Abbreviatied terms . 9
4 Independent review . 9
5 Technology qualification overview . 9
6 Stages of the Technology Qualification process . 11
6.1 General . 11
6.2 Role of independent reviewer in the process . 11
6.3 Prepare Qualification Basis . 11
6.4 Prepare system decomposition . 11
6.5 Integration of technology components / elements . 11
6.6 Implement technology assessment . 11
6.7 Determining degree of novelty of technology . 12
6.8 Risk assessment . 12
6.9 Terms of reference for criticality assessment of validated technology. 13
6.10 Criticality assessment . 13
6.11 Develop Technology Qualification Plan . 13
6.12 Updating the Technology Qualification Plan . 13
7 Reporting the TQ process . 13
7.1 Report content . 13
7.2 Restrictions . 14
Annex A (informative) Use of FMECA for technology qualification . 15
A.1 General . 15
A.2 Risk matrix . 15
Annex B (informative) Definition of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) . 17
Annex C (informative) Definition of Integration Readiness Levels (IRL) . 19
Annex D (informative) Assessing the overall Technology Readiness Levels . 20
Annex E (informative) Overview of a Technology Qualification Plan . 22
E.1 General . 22
E.2 Elements of a Technology Qualification Plan (TQP) . 22
Bibliography . 24

Figure 1 – Technology Qualification process . 10
Figure D.1 – Interaction between TRL and IRL (example) . 20
Figure D.2 – Determination of the modified TRL . 21

Table 1 – Technology classes . 9
Table A.1 – Probability of occurrence. 15
Table A.2 – Classification of consequence . 15

Table A.3 – Categories of risk . 16
Table B.1 – Description of Technology Readiness Levels . 17
Table C.1 – Description of Integration Readiness Levels . 19

– 4 – IEC TS 62600-4:2020 © IEC 2020
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
MARINE ENERGY – WAVE, TIDAL
AND OTHER WATER CURRENT CONVERTERS –

Part 4: Specification for establishing qualification of new technology

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as "IEC
Publication(s)"). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. In
exceptional circumstances, a technical committee may propose the publication of a Technical
Specification when
• the required support cannot be obtained for the publication of an International Standard,
despite repeated efforts, or
• the subject is still under technical development or where, for any other reason, there is the
future but no immediate possibility of an agreement on an International Standard.
Technical Specifications are subject to review within three years of publication to decide
whether they can be transformed into International Standards.
IEC TS 62600-4, which is a Technical Specification, has been prepared by IEC technical
committee TC 114: Marine energy – Wave, tidal and other water current converters.

The text of this Technical Specification is based on the following documents:
DTS Report on voting
114/346/DTS 114/365A/RVDTS
Full information on the voting for the approval of this Technical Specification can be found in
the report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
A list of all parts in the IEC 62600 series, published under the general title Marine energy –
Wave, tidal and other water current converters, can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until
the stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data
related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication will be
• transformed into an International standard,
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
– 6 – IEC TS 62600-4:2020 © IEC 2020
INTRODUCTION
Certification normally qualifies technology against existing standards to confirm compliance.
Technology Qualification (TQ) differs from ordinary certification in that it allows systems to be
qualified that do not conform to an existing standard (or may partially conform to an existing
standard). The approaches to Technology Qualification by several Certification Bodies are in
the references listed in the Bibliography.
Technology Qualification is used both when the technology is completely novel and when only
parts of it are novel. For example, some technologies may have been mostly demonstrated in
the past, but may have some subs
...