National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 12954:2019. It supersedes BS EN 12954:2001, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee GEL/603, Cathodic protection.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its secretary.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 August 2019.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 28 July 2019.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 12954:2019) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 219 “Cathodic protection”, the secretariat of which is held by BSI.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by February 2020, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by February 2020.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 12954:2001.

This document describes general principles for applying external cathodic protection on onshore metallic structures in contact with soils, fresh surface waters or underground waters, except those which are embedded in concrete and those which are in sea-waters or brackish waters.

This edition of EN 12954 does not cover specific applications for on-land pipelines.

NOTE On-land pipeline applications is now completely covered by EN ISO 15589‑1 [1].

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

Cathodic protection is a technique based on the application of electrochemical principles. It is achieved by the supply of sufficient direct current to the external surface, such that the metallic structure-to-electrolyte potential is shifted to more negative values where external corrosion becomes insignificant. Cathodic protection covers a wide range of materials and equipment and requires a variety of measurement techniques.

This document is applicable to the protection of external surfaces of all types of buried or immersed metallic structures. However, in order to allow for structures having specific features with regards to shape, use, detailed configuration, construction, commissioning or operation, provision has been made for complementary standards to be used in conjunction with this one to deal with the peculiarities of such structures.

To achieve effective cathodic protection design installation, commissioning, inspection and maintenance it is essential that the works are performed by competent personnel.

This document specifies conditions necessary to consider cathodic protection as an efficient method which can be applied to mitigate corrosion. It is normally used in combination with a coating.

Alternative solutions to those provided in this standard may be applied if it is demonstrated that they give equivalent effectiveness and they are well documented.

1 Scope

This document describes the general principles for the implementation and management of a system of cathodic protection against corrosive attacks on structures which are buried or in contact with soils, surface fresh waters or underground waters, with and without the interference of external electrical sources. It specifies the protection criteria to be achieved to demonstrate the cathodic protection effectiveness.

For structures that cannot be electrically isolated from neighbouring influencing structures, it may be impossible to use the criteria defined in the present document. In this case, EN 14505 will be applied (see 9.4 “Electrical continuity/discontinuity”).

NOTE To assist in forming a decision whether or not to apply cathodic protection the corrosion likelihood can be evaluated using informative Annex A which summarizes the requirements of EN 12501‑1 [2] and EN 12501‑2 [3].

Cathodic protection of structures immersed in seawater or brackish waters is covered by EN 12473 and a series of standards more specific for various applications.

Cathodic protection for reinforced concrete structures is covered by EN ISO 12696.

This document is applicable in conjunction with:

EN ISO 15589‑1 for application for buried or immersed cathodically protected pipelines,
EN 50162 to manage d.c. stray currents,
EN ISO 18086 to manage corrosion due to a.c. interference from high voltage power sources and a.c. traction systems,
EN 13509 for cathodic protection measurement techniques
EN 50443 to manage protection for touch and step voltage.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Abbreviations and symbols

5 Cathodic protection personnel competence

6 Principles and criteria of cathodic protection

6.1 Principles of cathodic protection

6.2 Cathodic protection criteria

6.3 Alternative method

6.4 Criteria in presence of a.c

7 Prerequisites for application of cathodic protection

7.1 General

7.2 Electrical continuity

7.3 Electrical isolation

7.4 External coating

8 Useful data and design considerations

8.1 General

8.2 Structure details

8.3 Service conditions

9 Design

9.1 General

9.2 Design lifetime

9.3 Adjacent structures and external electrical sources

9.4 Electrical continuity/discontinuity

9.5 Protective coatings

9.6 Current demand

9.7 Galvanic anode systems

9.8 A.C. and/or d.c. decoupling devices

9.9 Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) system

9.10 Monitoring

9.11 Cable

9.12 Impressed current groundbeds

10 Installation of cathodic protection systems

11 Commissioning

11.1 General

11.2 Preliminary checking

11.3 Start-up

11.4 Assessment of the cathodic protection effectiveness

11.5 Documentations

12 Monitoring, inspection and maintenance

12.1 General

12.2 Monitoring

12.3 Inspection

12.4 Maintenance

Bibliography

BS EN 12954:2019

General principles of cathodic protection of buried or immersed onshore metallic structures

Current, Under Review

Published:

31 Aug 2019