standards News

Daleep Mohla

Remember the Color Books?

I
remember the Color Books, and I of Industrial and Commercial ●● Emerald Book, IEEE Standard
miss them. The collection of IEEE Power Systems 1100-2005, Recommended Prac-
Industry Applications Society stan- ●● Brown Book, IEEE Standard 399- tice for Powering and Grounding
dards known as Color Books used to 1997, Recommended Practice Electronic Equipment
be the premier reference of electrical for Industrial and Commercial ●● Violet Book, IEEE Standard 551-
design, operations, and maintenance Power Systems Analysis 2006, Recommended Practice
personnel. The contents of each ●● Orange Book, IEEE Standard for Short-Circuit Calculations
Color Book included nearly complete 446-1995 (R2000), Recommend- in Industrial and Commercial
information needed for the topic ed Practice for Emergency and Power Systems.
addressed. The first Color Book, i.e., S t a n db y P o w e r S y s t e m s fo r
IEEE Standard 141, Recommended In d u s tr i al an d Comm e r ci al What Happened
Practice for the Electric Power Distri- Applications to the Color Books?
bution for Industrial Plants, known ●● Gold Book, IEEE Standard 493- Each Color Book contained material
as the Red Book, included descrip- 2007, Recommended Practice for on so many different topics that the
tions, guidelines, and recommenda- the Design of Reliable Industrial revision process became very time
tions for almost every topic to be and Commercial Power Systems consuming. This, coupled with a lack
considered for electrical power dis- ●● White Book, IEEE Standard 602- of resources due to attrition, result-
tribution in an industrial facility. The 2007, Recommended Practice for ed in unacceptable revision sched-
Red Book was so successful that it Electrical Systems in Health Care ules for each Color Book. Changes
was followed by a series of similar Facilities in technology since the last revision
re­­commended practices: ●● Bronze Book, IEEE Standard 739- meant that the Color Books lagged
●● Green Book, IEEE Standard 142- 1995 (R2000), Recommended behind the technology. Another
2007, Recommended Practice Practice for Energy Management issue was that sometimes the same
for Grounding of Industrial and in Indu str ial and Comme r - topic was covered in more than one
Commercial Power Systems cial Facilities Color Book, with the potential for
●● Gray Book, IEEE Standard 241- ●● Yellow Book, I E E E St a nd a rd differences between contents of the
1990 (R1997), Recommended 9 0 2 -1998, Guide for Mainte- two books.
Practice for Electrical Power Sys- nance, Operation, and Safety About ten years ago, a decision
tems in Commercial Buildings of Industrial and Commercial was made to update the contents of
●● Buff Book, IEEE Standard 242- Power Systems each Color Book by chapter. The con-
2001, Recommended Practice ●● Blue Book, IEEE Standard 1015- tents of each book were separated by
for Protection and Coordination 2006, Recommended Practice the technology, and each document
for Applying Low-Voltage Circuit was given a unique identification
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIAS.2018.2820441
Breakers Used in Industrial and number. The new standards were
Date of publication: 8 June 2018 Commercial Power Systems known as dot standards.

72 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine œ J ULY/AUGUST 2018

 The contents of 11 Color Books We then faced the Color Books and the
were divided into the following series question of how do availability of updat-
based on the technology covered: you retain the Color
The path forward ed contents.
●● IEEE 3001, Power Systems Design Books’ loyal custom- retains the All IEEE standards
●● IEEE 3002, Power Systems Ana­ ers with the capability are prepared solely by
lysis to upgrade the con-
essential and volunteers. The IEEE
●● IEEE 3003, Power Systems Ground­ tents in a timely man- desired availability Standards Association
ing ner? The answer came staff provides valuable
●● IEEE 3004, Protection and Coor- from our very capable
of the popular guidance and assis-
dination IEEE Standards Asso- Color Books with a tance for adminis-
●● IEEE 3005, Energy and Standby ciation staff. trative and editorial
Power Systems The path forward
method of timely tasks. One reason that
●● IEEE 3006, Power Systems Re­­ retains the essential contents updates. updating the Color
liability and desired availab­ Books is slow is a lack
●● IEEE 3007, Power Systems Main- ility of the popular of available technical
tenance, Operations and Safety. Color Books with a method of timely volunteer resources. We need ener-
But we forgot one thing: how will contents updates. Each technology getic and enthusiastic new members
users react to such a change? What area will be updated as dot stan- willing to assist in updating the con-
we learned made us explore some dards. Packages will be created that tents. Please contact me if you are
options that would allow us to update offer existing Color Book mate- interested in this very worthwhile
the technical contents while retaining rial with completed dot standards effort: d.c.mohla@ieee.org.
the name brand of Color Books. to combine the convenience of 

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J ULY /AUG US T 2018 œ IEEE Industry Applications Magazine 73