En -Electric pocket

Preface

It is now seven years since the twenty-second edition of the Pocket Book

was published, a rather longer interval than might be desirable in the rapidly

moving and rapidly developing world of electrical technology. We now have

a new editor and, as a result, the possibility of some differing emphasis.

Eric Reeves’ name has become synonymous with the Pocket Book. He

has been editor for over forty years covering some ten or more editions. He is

now enjoying his ‘retirement’. He has left a pocket reference work that is in

good shape, but inevitably as the industry moves on, the detail is constantly

subject to change.

In the UK, privatization of electricity supply was some six years consigned

to history at the time of publication of the twenty-second edition. But much

of the transformation of the industry, which now sees electricity traded as

any other commodity like oil or coffee beans, has taken place over the last

five or six years. Many of the companies that the Government set up in 1989

have now disappeared and the structure of the industry has changed beyond

recognition. Changes now occur so rapidly that the details of the UK utilities

as given in the previous edition have been dropped. The reader must now keep

up with these developments by closely watching the business pages of his or

her newspaper.

Now, if it is more profitable to sell gas than to use it to generate electricity

and sell that, utilities are happy to do this. Now, the generators, transmission

lines and transformers are ‘assets’ which assist the owners in making a profit,

and the staff entrusted with the care and supervision of these are ‘asset managers’.

They may be more skilled in risk assessment and knowledgeable about

failure rates and downtimes than their predecessors, but it is still necessary

to retain a workforce who know about the plant and are able to ensure it can

remain in safe and reliable operation.

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