Preface The authors would like to acknowledge the almost 40 years of dedicated work by Professor Willis F. Long of the Department of Engineering Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin--Madison that has made this book possible. It was because of his efforts that the first course of a series, Power Cable Engineering Clinic, was presented in the early 1970s where Dr. Eugene Greenfield gave all the lectures for 8 hours a day during the 5 days of the course. He later added a few lecturers to share the work load. The course was reorganized in 1999 and called How to Design, Install, Operate, and Maintain Reliable Power Cable Systems and divided into two sessions: Understanding Power Cable Characteristics and Applications and Assessing and Extending the Life of Shielded Power Cable Systems. The present course is known as Understanding Power Cable Characteristics and Applications. Over the years, numerous lecturers have produced copious class notes that form the basis for much of the material that has been rearranged into a book format. The contributors hope that their team effort will be a useful addition to the library of all dedicated cable engineers. The dynamics of the cable industry produces many new materials, products, and concepts, which are incorporated into new editions. New chapters have been prepared (Low Voltage Cables and Thermal Resistivity of Soils) while others have been updated and expanded (Conductors now includes metric designations and Acronyms have been added to the Glossary) for this Third Edition. Emphasis of this book remains on low and medium voltages since they comprise the majority of cables in service throughout the world-- Provided by publisher.