Book excerpt: A reference at once so elemental and so comprehensive, The Electric Power Engineering Handbook not only describes the field’s body of knowledge, but defines it. Written by expert contributors under the leadership of one of the world’s most respected and accomplished authorities in power engineering, the second edition remains the undisputed guide to power generation, transmission, and distribution, as well as for modeling, analyzing, planning, designing, monitoring, and controlling power systems. This fully updated edition is now available as a set of five books, each focused on a particular area of expertise. Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Electric Power Substations Engineering, Second Edition Electric Power Transformer Engineering, Second Edition Power Systems Power System Stability and Control The handbook’s first edition spawned two bestselling specialist works, Electric Power Transformer Engineering and Electric Power Substations Engineering, each of which included new material not found in the handbook. For this edition, these highly popular progeny rejoin the handbook, supplying ten additional chapters. Along with updates to nearly every chapter, several rewritten articles, and new material added to existing sections, this edition features nine entirely new chapters on such areas as environmental effects of transmission systems, substation asset management, substation commissioning, distribution system characteristics and protection, real-time control of distributed generation, and flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) controllers. Retaining its unique tutorial style, The Electric Power Engineering Handbook, Second Edition prevails as a monument to the decades of ingenuity and tireless efforts of power engineers around the world.