Book excerpt: The principles of the First Edition--to teach students and engineers the fundamentals of electrical transients and equip them with the skills to recognize and solve transient problems in power networks and components--also guide this Second Edition. While the text continues to stress the physical aspects of the phenomena involved in these problems, it also broadens and updates the computational treatment of transients. Necessarily, two new chapters address the subject of modeling and models for most types of equipment are discussed. The adequacy of the models, their validation and the relationship between model and the physical entity it represents are also examined. There are now chapters devoted entirely to isolation coordination and protection, reflecting the revolution that metal oxide surge arresters have caused in the power industry. Features additional and more complete illustrative material--figures, diagrams and worked examples. An entirely new chapter of case studies demonstrates modeling and computational techniques as they have been applied by engineers to specific problems.