Introduction

This chapter presents initially historical references to the electric industry and constructs a connection with power system state estimation (SE). Power network operating modes and their associated controls are characterized. Also, the chapter delineates the main aspects of SE, including the origins of the estimation theory remoting to Gauss’s thoughts, the genesis of SE, the characterization of the power system state of interest, the purposes/advantages, and the modularity of SE (network configuration, measuring system observation capability evaluation, state forecasting, state filtering, and input data validation). The computational implementation of a friendly educational tool for SE named State Estimation Educational (SEE) tool—a free, open-source Web application available at https://seet.mbrown.com.br/—is also discussed. This chapter ends with a description of the content of the book’s chapters, which align with SE modules.