The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) recently unveiled an updated and expanded edition of its landmark guidebook EPRI AC Transmission Line Reference Book: 200 kV and Above, Third Edition, which is widely known as the “Red Book," the industry standard on high-voltage line design.

The latest Red Book modernizes theories and techniques for transmission line design and operations, and EPRI offers Red Book-based training to system operators on a regional or company-specific basis. The Red Book is available to members and non-members at $5,000 per hardcover copy including a CD-ROM of stand-alone calculation modules.

"This edition of the Red Book includes a greater global scope, is designed to be much more effective as a training tool, and includes a significant amount of institutional learning and memory that would otherwise be lost as a generation of transmission experts begins to enter retirement,” said Andrew Phillips, EPRI program manager for transmission.

EPRI offers a series of transmission seminars based on the principles and theories presented in the Red Book. Classroom instruction and field activities complement EPRI’s guidebook to transfer the knowledge of the world’s top transmission line experts to today’s engineers.

"EPRI assembled a global team of experts to make the book truly international in its content,” said Philips. “Through its pricing and training opportunities, the Red Book is now applicable to a wider audience and it will have an even greater worldwide impact.”

The Red Book was first published in 1975 under the title Transmission Line Reference Book, 345kV and Above (EL-2500). It featured a red cover, and the text quickly became known simply as the Red Book. Over the past three decades, it has been in use daily throughout the global power industry.

EPRI updated 11 chapters and expanded the new version significantly, adding four new chapters and a CD-ROM with 50 applets, or small software programs. These stand-alone calculation modules enable users to exercise and implement calculations based on the theories and principles described in the Red Book.