Embedded Systems in the energy sectors vary significantly from exploration through generation to distribution, and so do the quality levels applicable for such differing safety related systems. The costs of software failure however, are potentially catastrophic involving expensive machinery, leaks, lost revenue and even loss of life. Together with increasing adoption of international standards these factors are driving industry leaders to improve safety-critical software quality.
Energy standards
Standards in the energy sector cover a wide range of applications in power generation (carbon fuels, renewables and nuclear power) to power distribution and metering. The standard IEC 61508:2010 may be applicable to all cases where programmable devices are used to control the functioning of systems where safety is or may be a consideration. The most stringent software safety standards in the energy sector are applied to nuclear power plants. IEC 61226 “Nuclear power plants - Instrumentation and control important to safety - Classification of instrumentation and control functions”, is the standard which classifies functions into A, B or C. IEC 62138 covers category B or C functions only, while IEC 60880:2006 covers the most stringent category A functions. Both IEC 61508 and IEC 60880 also require use of coding standards such as MISRA and CERT .
For information on standards relevant for development of systems for the energy sector please see the red links below.
IEC 60880
Nuclear power plants - Software aspects for computer-based systems performing category A functions
CERT C/C++
Secure Coding Standard
IEC 61508
Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic Safety-related Systems
MISRA C/C++
Guidelines for the use of the C/C++ languages in critical systems
QA Systems testing tools
QA Systems enables organisations to accelerate IEC 60880, IEC 61508, MISRA and CERT standards compliance with automated static and dynamic testing tools:
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