•  Press Release - New SEL Book Describes Significant Challenges and Opportunities for Today's Electric Power Systems 
• Table of Contents 
• Distribution System Protection Excerpt 
• Wide-Area Protection Excerpt 

Modern Solutions for Protection, Control, and Monitoring of Electric Power Systems

The most comprehensive work of its kind, this book consolidates into one volume new, modern solutions for protection, control, and monitoring of electric power systems.

You'll find straightforward presentations and example applications of the following technologies:

• Time-synchronized protection, monitoring, and control
• Wide-area protection and control using synchrophasors
• Cybersecurity threats and security-in-depth tool kit
• Distribution systems that deliver safe operation and rapid power restoration after faults
• Transmission protection solutions that improve stability, detect power swings, and help you get the most out of your primary equipment
• Much more!
• List Price: $151.21 (usd)

• View Contributing Author List 

Book Reviews

Charles Henville, P.Eng., M. Eng., FIEEE
Henville Consulting Inc.
The content describes numerous innovations and modern techniques to enhance conventional protection and control practices....and includes a wider vision of the impact of modern technology (using communications and information) to improve the reliability, efficiency, and performance of power systems.
[Read full review.]

This book is a collection of contributions from several engineers with comprehensive expertise in power system protection. Each of 14 chapters describes some modern solutions to problems that have plagued protection engineers for decades. The complete volume is edited into a coherent whole by Dr. Schweitzer and Dr. Altuve. The text is well written, and complemented by numerous excellent illustrations.

As expected, the initial chapters provide thorough treatment of protection of the major areas of power system equipment – generation, transmission and distribution. The content describes numerous innovations and modern techniques to enhance conventional protection and control practices. In addition the second half of book includes a wider vision of the impact of modern technology (using communications and information) to improve the reliability, efficiency, and performance of power systems. The chapters in this second half allow the reader to gain an appreciation of the giant steps that information technology has taken to move forward the value of secondary equipment (protection and control) to maximize the efficiency of primary power equipment.

By intention, the book does not include most of the basic principles of protection engineering. As explained in the Preface, the focus is on modern solutions to keep the size of the book reasonable. For development of fundamental concepts, the authors rely on numerous and comprehensive references. Therefore, engineers with some experience in the field of power system protection will benefit most from this book.

The examples are almost exclusively based on solutions from a single manufacturer of protection control and monitoring equipment. Specific equipment model names and numbers from that manufacturer are nearly always used; so the reader is left in no doubt as to which company has produced the book. The information therefore cannot be considered to be from a broad industry base. However it users of equipment from that manufacturer will find the book a most useful source of information and ideas to improve the reliability and effectiveness of their applications of protection control and monitoring equipment.

David M. Angell, Manager, Delivery Planning
Idaho Power Company
The book contains several subjects that do not appear in other text that I am acquainted with. About one-third of the book...covers the topic of managing power system information.
[Read full review.]

Modern Solutions for Protection, Control, and Monitoring of the Electric Power System covers many of the innovations that SEL has brought to the industry in a clear, well organized and well referenced manner. Since the company was formed, the engineers at SEL have taken a fresh look at the protection of the electric power system. The development of the microprocessor combined with the performance increases has allowed the engineers to create relay elements such as the load encroachment characteristic which is tailored to measure load and maximize the protection element fault coverage. Additionally, the book covers traditional protection concepts and demonstrates how to apply them with clear methods for calculating the application settings. Two examples of this are the use of negative sequence elements for: 1.) the application of negative sequence overcurrent to the protection of distribution feeders, and 2.) the negative sequence impedance plane for setting negative sequence impedance direction elements. Both of these applications are presented in detail in the book.

The book contains several subjects that do not appear in other text that I am acquainted with. About one-third of the book, Chapters 9 though 14, covers the topic of managing power system information. The application of microprocessors to protection has brought with it the ability of capturing data such as synchrophasors, faulted system measurements, and timing of control functions. These chapters cover the requirements of communications systems within and external to the substation, to securing the information, and how to effectively use the information to improve power system performance.

In summary, the book covers many of the innovations that SEL engineers have developed and provides practical examples of where they apply and the benefits achieved along with what they believe are best practices.

Brian K. Johnson, Ph.D., P.E.
University of Idaho Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
None of the other books I have read comes close in both the depth and breadth of coverage, whether they are targeting an audience of graduate students or practicing engineers. There is a tremendous amount of information presented in the book, with a balanced style that provided suitable background, describes state of the art methods, and still covers a wide array of topics.
[Read full review.]

The book Modern Solution for Protection, Control and Monitoring of Electric Power System provides a timely, comprehensive overview of current and emerging best practices in power systems protection and control. None of the other books I have read comes close in both the depth and breadth of coverage, whether they are targeting an audience of graduate students or practicing engineers. There is a tremendous amount of information presented in the book, with a balanced style that provided suitable background, describes state of the art methods, and still covers a wide array of topics.

The book starts out with describing time synchronized phasor measurements and goes on to present possible applications in monitoring, control and protection of power systems. The chapters on power system protection provide a superb presentation on modern techniques that fully take advantage of microprocessor relays. The book then has chapters dedicated to power systems communication, monitoring and information security combine topics rarely covered in any book. The authors do an excellent job cross-referencing material between chapters. This is essential, given the breadth and depth of material covered. Each chapter starts out with very well written, detailed overviews describing what the reader will learn in the chapter. The authors point the reader to readily available sources for further information for the interested reader. Modern Solution for Protection, Control and Monitoring of Electric Power Systems is a valuable resource to engineers to most fully utilize their SEL protection, control and monitoring equipment.

John J. Novak Jr., Project Coordinator, Gulf Coast H&E Project Management
The Dow Chemical Company"I believe this book is very timely and will prove to be extremely valuable to individuals in industrial power systems protection and control as they migrate from older and obsolete technologies into the newer and more available technologies. [It] provides many solutions but also generates much insight into the enormous value which can be received when applying these modern solutions by enhancing the protection, control, and monitoring of the electrical power system and simultaneously eliminating a majority of the existing hardware and wiring."

Modern Solutions for Protection, Control, and Monitoring of Electrical Power Systems (copyright 2010) Edited by Hector J. Altuve Ferrer and Edmund O. Schweitzer III is a thorough collection of many solutions to particular problems and challenges encountered when operating and maintaining the electrical power system. Some of these solutions are for obstacles which have been encountered for years, while many others are for obstacles just recently becoming problems as new technologies are being implemented. These solutions are well grounded in facts backed up by many references substantiating these recommended solutions. This book is very well organized and references many graphs and tables which help lead you from a clear understanding of the problem to a clear understanding of the available solutions.

In my opinion I believe this book is very timely and will prove to be extremely valuable to individuals in industrial power systems protection and control as they migrate from older and obsolete technologies into the newer and more available technologies. This book provides many solutions but also generates much insight into the enormous value which can be received when applying these modern solutions by enhancing the protection, control, and monitoring of the electrical power system and simultaneously eliminating a majority of the existing hardware and wiring.

This book is very well organized with the many references cited for further detailed exploration into these various solutions. It has most definitely provided clarity to some obscure issues we have encountered during our ongoing migration of newer technologies.