ABSTRACT
There are many challenging power engineering problems to be solved. New customers must be served. Old equipment must be maintained. New technologies must be assessed and adopted. To solve these challenges, power engineers find themselves responsible for planning, engineering, system analysis, system design, equipment specification, maintenance management, operations, and a host of other functions. Whatever their role, power engineers make many decisions. Some of these decisions result from extensive and careful analyses. Others are made quickly during everyday activities. In virtually all cases, decisions have cost and other implications. Some options are cheap. Others options are expensive. Some options spend as little as possible now. Others options spend money now in order to save money later. Some options result in high safety margins. Other options are more risky. With so many choices, it is valuable for power engineers to understand the criteria for deciding which decisions are best from a business perspective.
