Book review 93 Protective Relay Principles by Anthony F. Sleva Power system protection is a very complex subject that requires good understanding of the electric power system components and the different abnormal conditions that can occur as a result of a short circuit fault or equipment failure. The changing technology and evolving protection principles are additional factors that require people working in the field to continuously work on expanding their knowledge. The author of the book , Anthony Sleva, has many years as a protection engineer in the relay section of System Operations, Pennsylvania Power & Light Company. This practical experience, as well as his teaching of protection courses at Lehigh University and the University of Wisconsin has helped him write an excellent introductory book on the principles and applications of protective relays in electric power systems. The material in the book is presented in 350 pages, divided in twenty chapters. The first chapter covers the primary components of the electric power system, such as transmission and distribution lines, transformers and breakers, buses and generators. The second chapter focuses on subcomponents of the primary equipment (instrument transformers, bushings, insulators, switches, etc.) and secondary equipment (protective relays, programmable logic controllers, batteries, etc.). The next chapter describes different abnormal system conditions – short circuit faults, overloads, abnormal voltage and frequency conditions, unbalanced and open phase conditions. It is followed by a chapter introducing the concept of sequence components and the calculation of currents and voltages in the cases of different short circuit faults. The following two chapters discuss the basic protection functions and how they can be combined to provide more advanced fault detection. Zones of protection and the types of protection relays – electromechanical, solid-state and microprocessor based – are presented later in the book, followed by setting and protective relay coordination considerations. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to the protection of distribution lines – both radial and networked. Protection philosophy, the use of different phase and ground overcurrent relays and the criteria and methods for their settings calculation are presented in an easy to understand manner with many practical examples. Transmission line protection and transformer protection are just briefly introduced to give an idea to the reader about the basic issues and the principles of their protection. The same is also true for the chapters on bus and breaker failure protection, capacitor bank and reactor protection. The last chapter of the book covers issues related to the protection of the electric power system in case of abnormal conditions such as voltage and frequency variations caused by a system disturbance. Under and overvoltage protection, as well as under and overfrequency protection and their applications are briefly described. Overall, this is an excellent book for beginners in the field of electric power systems protection, especially due to the focus on the pract ical aspects of the application of protective relays to detection and clearing of abnormal system conditions. The multiple step-by-step examples will help the reader understand and become comfortable with the methods for calculation of system parameters and the settings of the different types of relays. The fact that the book describes not only the individual protection functions, but also how a programmable scheme logic can be use to improve and optimize the protection of distribution or transmission networks is something that will help grasping some of the more advanced principles used in modern protection devices and systems. Protective Relay Principles by Anthony F. Sleva Publisher: CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group ISBN 978-0-8247-5372-6 PAC.MARCH.2010