Book excerpt: Power system operation is one of the important issues in the power industry. The book aims to provide readers with the methods and algorithms to save the total cost in electricity generation and transmission. It begins with traditional power systems and builds into the fundamentals of power system operation, economic dispatch (ED), optimal power flow (OPF), and unit commitment (UC). The book covers electricity pricing mechanisms, such as nodal pricing and zonal pricing, based on Security-Constrained ED (SCED) or SCUC. The operation of energy market and ancillary service market are also explored. "It covers a wide range of interesting topics, which could be very useful for understanding the main phenomena ruling power systems economy (such as Optimal Power Flow analysis and unit Commitments). It addresses topics widely treated in the literature, hence it is important to outline its distinctive features compared to other similar books. The book is well structured and well balanced." —Alfredo Vaccaro, University of Sannio, Italy