Book excerpt: Optimal Coordination of Power Protective Devices with Illustrative Examples Provides practical guidance on the coordination issue of power protective relays and fuses Protecting electrical power systems requires devices that isolate the components that are under fault while keeping the rest of the system stable. Optimal Coordination of Power Protective Devices with Illustrative Examples provides a thorough introduction to the optimal coordination of power systems protection using fuses and protective relays. Integrating fundamental theory and real-world practice, the text begins with an overview of power system protection and optimization, followed by a systematic description of the essential steps in designing optimal coordinators using only directional overcurrent relays. Subsequent chapters present mathematical formulations for solving many standard test systems, and cover a variety of popular hybrid optimization schemes and their mechanisms. The author also discusses a selection of advanced topics and extended applications including adaptive optimal coordination, optimal coordination with multiple time-current curves, and optimally coordinating multiple types of protective devices. Optimal Coordination of Power Protective Devices: Covers fuses and overcurrent, directional overcurrent, and distance relays Explains the relation between fault current and operating time of protective relays Discusses performance and design criteria such as sensitivity, speed, and simplicity Includes an up-to-date literature review and a detailed overview of the fundamentals of power system protection Features numerous illustrative examples, practical case studies, and programs coded in MATLAB® programming language Optimal Coordination of Power Protective Devices with Illustrative Examples is the perfect textbook for instructors in electric power system protection courses, and a must-have reference for protection engineers in power electric companies, and for researchers and industry professionals specializing in power system protection.