IEC 61400-2:2013 deals with safety philosophy, quality assurance, and engineering integrity and specifies requirements for the safety of small wind turbines (SWTs) including design, installation, maintenance and operation under specified external conditions. It provides the appropriate level of protection against damage from hazards from these systems during their planned lifetime. This standard is concerned with all subsystems of SWTs such as protection mechanisms, internal electrical systems, mechanical systems, support structures, foundations and the electrical interconnection with the load. While this standard is similar to IEC 61400-1, it does simplify and make significant changes in order to be applicable to small wind turbines. The main changes with respect to the previous edition are as follows:
- the title has been modified to better reflect the scope;
- restructured into a part Design evaluation and a part Type testing to harmonise use with IEC 61400-22 conformity testing and certification;
- caution provided regarding the use of simplified equations;
- added various annexes (wind conditions, tropical storms, extreme environmental conditions, EMC testing, dynamic behavior, etc.).