1.  Introduction

TC 4 was established by the Committee of Action in 1913. It is responsible for the preparation, periodic review and updating of standards and technical reports covering the design, manufacturing and rehabilitation, commissioning, testing and operation of hydraulic machines including turbines, storage pumps and pump-turbines of all types as well as related equipment.

TC 4 is responsible for 38 existing Standards and Guides.  Eight different Working Groups, JWG1, 14, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27 (soon to be disbanded), 29 and MT28, are active in the development of new standards and maintenance of existing standards.

TC4 maintains through the Central Office (CO) in Geneva and the Regional Centre in Worcester, Ma., through its Secretariat in Montréal, through the National Sub-Committees and through the Working Groups, liaisons with other TC’s, with ISO and particularly ISO TC 108/SC 2/WG 6 regarding “Vibration in hydraulic machine sets”, ISO/TC 30 on Large Flow Measurements and recently IEC TC 57/WG 18 on Hydroelectric power plants / Communication for monitoring and control.

Contacts are also established with CENELEC, ASME, and a Type D Liaison is maintained with IEEE.

Attached is a list of the eighteen (18) Participating (P) countries and the fourteen (14) Observer (O) countries as of May 5th, 2005.  Denmark and Netherlands have withdrawn from their position as Observer countries.

Fourteen (14) of the eighteen (18) “P” countries actively participated, together with one observer, in the Stuttgart Plenary Meeting held May 9-11, 2005, mobilizing the efforts of 50 active members from around the world, not including invited technical experts.

2.  Current work

The attached table details work before TC4 at this time:

The complete work programmed is attached hereto Annex I.

3        Resources/infrastructure needed

The fifty experts present at Plenary meetings consider that their involvement in TC4 should represent a few hundred hours per year. These figures are less and less easy to insert within the current activities of experts.

Information systems cannot replace face-to-face discussions. The good attendance to the Plenary Meeting, also an opportunity for Working Group to meet, reflects the opportunity for many active engineers to fulfil this role of international expert that they are sometimes forced to neglect for months.

Information systems must remain particularly friendly to occasional users, both as a source of documentation and transmission.

4.  Future work

The involvement of China in most working groups of the IEC-TC4 is now a fact since the Beijing meeting and the expertise gained through the large Chinese Hydroelectric Projects is particularly important.  Efforts are being made to involve India and major South-American countries as Participating (including voting privileges) Countries, having in mind the potential of these zones and, at least, the particular importance of the new Working Group on erosion for most of these countries.

Tide and river stream energy is emerging with good potential.  A corresponding need for new standards will have to be considered.

Finally, guides that would enhance the reliability of hydraulic turbo-machinery, should be made available rapidly to respond simultaneously to recent technological challenges and moves in the industrial structure.

5.  Maintenance cycle