Practical Power Plant Engineering

Preface – Why This Book?

This book is a result of 50 years of practical experience from working in a number of industries with ever‐changing technologies and by associating with many experienced engineers; electrical and other engineering backgrounds.

Starting as an engineer is not easy. You are facing a big transition. I'm certain this book will help get you through the most critical phase of your development as an electrical engineer and make you the confident and knowledgeable professional that you wanted to be when you decided to be an engineer.

There are a lot of books on the market explaining the theory of electrical engineering, but there are no books on practical engineering and experience. There used to be the old Westinghouse (now ABB) TD (blue) Book and Donald Beeman, General Electric Co. 1955: Industrial Power Systems Handbook, both of which I have proudly used as a young engineer. Both books now seem to be largely outdated. Computers have taken over much of the handmade calculations.

The information contained in this book is by no means all encompassing. An attempt to present the entire subject of practical electrical engineering would be impractical. However, this book does present guidelines to provide the reader with a fundamental knowledge sufficient to understand the concepts and methods of practical design and equipment selection and operations.

The first hint of a book came in Venezuela. After three years on a job with a local engineering company heading ...