T HE reliability of power supply to industrial, commercial,
and nonresidential organizations gained renewed importance
during the last several years as outages shut down power
in several regions in the country. With increased utilization of
high-tech equipment in their manufacturing and nonmanufacturing
processes, the industrial and other loads are becoming
very sensitive to power outages from the grid, as power cessation,
even a momentary one, can cause multimillion-dollar loss
to certain industries.