The first edition of the book “Apuntes de Sistemas El ctricos de Potencia” (“Notes on Electric Power Systems”), by Professor Walter Brokering, was published in 1978. In 2008, an updated reissue was released, “Ñom Lüfke, o el Rayo Domado” (“Ñom Lüfke, or the Tamed Lightning”), which Brokering co-authored with two other professors from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Chile: Dr. Luis Vargas and Dr. Rodrigo Palma Behnke, director of SERC Chile.
The third version has recently been launched, adapted and updated with a title consistent with our new reality: “Atrapando el Sol en los sistemas el ctricos de potencia” (“Catching the Sun in Power Systems”), by Walter Brokering and Rodrigo Palma Behnke. This interactive, open-access web platform aims to support the training of hundreds of Electrical Engineering students in Latin America, continuing the legacy of the many who have used this text for years, colloquially known as “The Brokering.” The platform is available at sepsolar.centroenergia.cl
The book contains approximately 535 figures and illustrations, 65 tables with practical background information, and numerous solved numerical examples.
Among other motivations for this third edition, the authors highlight the scarcity of Spanish-language texts applicable to regional contexts that facilitate university teaching and empower the training of new professionals, allowing them to overcome the existing dissociation between the theoretical criteria used to plan and operate Electric Power Systems (SEP) and the practical reality of Competitive Electricity Markets (MEC).
“The objective of this text,” the preface states, is “to remind all those interested in power systems of their fundamental characteristics and the physical and economic rules governing their behavior, ensuring they are respected and adequately considered in the planning of new facilities and the operation of existing ones. Furthermore, it aims to present the foundations of the economic theory intended for application in a sector that constitutes a natural monopoly and involves the exchange of various products with diverse commercial characteristics (active and reactive power at peak and off-peak hours; energy; management of reservoirs of different capacities; frequency regulation; availability; reserve and mutual support, etc.). This theory is, to some extent, still evolving, and there is a clear need for a text that presents it comprehensively.”
The website features multimedia applications that help deepen the knowledge presented across the different chapters and incorporates an unrestricted version of the DeepEdit program for SEP simulations, which includes the power grids of several countries, such as Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, and Argentina.
