Best Recommended Books to Help Pass the PE Power Exam
Wasim Asghar 
May 30, 2023You’ve cleared your FE Electrical examination, gained EIT status, garnered four years of worthwhile experience working under a licensed PE, and are now planning to take the PE Power exam.
So, what’s next?
The only thing you are missing is the electrical power PE exam study material, which is essential to pass the PE Power exam. Preparing for the PE Power exam without a PE study guide is akin to sailing a ship without a rudder – you have no idea which direction you are going!
That’s why it’s crucial to gather as many relevant PE exam books as possible to prepare for and pass the PE Power exam. However, with several PE power exam study materials around, figuring out the appropriate one can be tough.
In fact, the difference between clearing and flunking the PE Electrical and Power exam depends heavily on which electrical engineering PE review manual you opt for. So to help you save time, we have enlisted and reviewed the best books for the PE power exam that will assist you to ace the PE exam with flying colors.
Let’s take a look at each of the best PE reference guides.
Best Electrical Power PE Exam Study Material
These days, there are many PE exam books that will help you find answers to any challenging areas of study. To help you find the best ones, here are some of the best books for studying to prepare and pass your Power PE exam. These include:
1. The NCEES® PE Electrical and Computer: Power Practice Exam
Imagine if you could purchase the electrical engineering PE review manual from the same author responsible for creating your PE exam?
You will not waste a second grabbing that PE reference book, right?
Here’s some good news: You can actually buy that dream book!
The NCEES®, a non-profit organization that administers your PE exam, officially provides you with a full-length practice exam to prepare for the electrical PE exam.
The NCEES® PE Electrical and Computer: Power Practice Exam can be a valuable addition to your PE exam books collection. It includes several full-length practice exams that students can solve and complete at their ease.
Comprising 80 practice questions, this PE review manual provides the students with detailed solutions to help them understand how to answer various exam problems. It also assists students in familiarizing themselves with the PE Electrical and Computer: Power exam format for computer-based testing.
This book edition contains 71 pages with four additional examples of alternative item types, such as multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and matching questions.
Though it is apparent that you won’t get the exact similar questions in the PE exam, at least you can anticipate getting problems with comparable terminology and formatting. That’s why purchasing this book can be your wisest decision to become acquainted with their wording and questioning style as much as you can.
In addition, it is also beneficial for the students as it complies with all NCEES® specifications and offers exam prep tips.
Priced at $39.95, this is one of the best books on the PE power exam that has a star rating of 4.2 out of 5.0 on Amazon.
The reviews for this PE reference guide are positive. One student commented: “This practice guide was a good diagnostic and preparation for the topics, difficulty, and wording style a week before the actual PE Power exam.”
2. Study Guide for PE Electrical and Computer Power Exam By Wasim Asghar (2nd Edition)
Want to get a feel for what the actual PE Electrical and Computer Power exam would be like?
Then wait no more, and grab your copy of Wasim Asghar’s professional engineering exam Study Guide for PE Electrical and Computer – Power Exam now!
Built around the concept of “problem-based learning,” this electrical engineering PE review manual features more than 700 practice questions with comprehensive solutions. The detailed solutions will assist you in answering and comprehending each question on the practice exam, enabling you to tackle similar problems in the actual PE exam. The comprehensive solutions will also help students discover pertinent formulas, code sources, and explanations.
This PE exam book covers the latest NCEES® PE Electrical and Power CBT exam specification and includes all of the following PE exam topics:
- Analysis
- Applications
- Codes and Standards
- Devices and Power Electronic Circuits
- Electric Power Devices
- Induction and Synchronous Machines
- Measurement and Instrumentation
- Power System Analysis
- Protection
Consisting of 392 pages, this electrical power PE exam study material is tailored to help students develop a solid knowledge foundation for quantitative and qualitative exam-style problems. It is specially designed for fresh graduates and seasoned professionals looking forward to taking the PE Power exam soon.
This PE reference guide also includes beneficial tips related to each topic and cross-references to the NCEES® PE Power handbook, provided at the start of each chapter.
You can purchase this guide for $89.99. Moreover, this book boasts a tremendous star rating of 4.9 out of 5.0 on Amazon, indicating how popular this PE exam book is among the students.
The value of this PE review manual can be judged through this positive review shared by one of the students: “The book has great examples including some that are more difficult than the actual exam. Everything is covered from the basics to problems of all levels.”
3. Electrical Engineering PE Practice Exam and Technical Study Guide
The Electrical Engineering PE Practice Exam and Technical Study Guide is one of the best PE power exam study materials authored and produced by Zach Stone.
Comprising 194 pages, the purpose of this short and sweet PE exam book is to assist students in significantly boosting their average PE exam score by swiftly strengthening their comprehension of all exam knowledge areas.
Designed to be an effective learning tool that will help students enhance their examination skills quickly, this study guide is a perfect blend of in-depth technical theory explanations and realistic practice problems. It contains 80 PE practice problems divided into two sessions (morning and afternoon).
This PE reference guide has the same number of problems per topic as the NCEES® exam criteria. Interestingly, each problem’s complexity level will be equivalent to or even greater than the PE exam to give you the best sense of what to anticipate while taking the actual PE examination.
Moreover, it contains 26 total qualitative questions to provide you with a ton of practice perusing your reference materials and becoming familiar with answering challenging theory-based problems. Unlike other practice examinations, you won’t get lost following along because every solution is exceptionally detailed, featuring diagrams and illustrations provided for each question solution to assist you in grasping quite complex concepts as quickly as possible.
To top it off, every solution is loaded with circuit diagrams, phasor illustrations, and formulas and is frequently done with various techniques to ensure that you comprehend the solution from every viewpoint conceivable while dealing with each question.
This electrical engineering PE review manual is reasonably priced at $33.68 and has an impressive star rating of 4.7 out of 5.0 on Amazon.
Check out how one of the students’ commended this study guide: “This is one of the best book I have come across while preparing for the exam, The question given in this book will push you to think on the concept which we usually miss without going in detail, Figures are colorful which enhance the understanding and detail solution of theory as well as numerical is one of the best thing. Highly recommended.”
4. 2017 National Electrical Code® Handbook Edition (NFPA70, NEC®)
What if we tell you that the PE Power exam can give you a tough time if you don’t possess this National Electrical Code® Handbook?
You certainly will not like to put yourself in a challenging situation that can even put your chances of passing the PE exam at stake. The Codes and Standards segment of the Electrical Power PE exam consists of 10 questions out of a total of 80 questions.
The full-color 2017 edition NEC® Handbook, which has been completely rewritten and updated, is the most practical and powerful resource for electrical design and installation available today.
The manual is full of commentary to assist clarify difficult concepts and does a better job of explaining them in layman’s terms. The Handbook is also chock-full of helpful images and chapter examples with step-by-step computations.
This PE exam book is priced at $189.90 and has a star rating of 4.4 out of 5.0 on Amazon.
The students’ reviews for this guide are positive and exhibit that it is an absolute must to get familiar with the code-related problems on the PE exam.
5. Power System Analysis and Design by Glover, Sarma, and Overbye (6th Edition)
This is one of the most extensive PE exam books, especially on the exam topic of “Protection” available, the subject with the most questions on the PE Electrical and Power Exam.
This book is a behemoth of 864 pages, which will guide you through the fundamental ideas that underpin today’s power systems. It will also help you analyze the tools you’ll need to put your newfound knowledge to use in real-world scenarios.
This edition of the book emphasizes physical principles while also providing the knowledge of mathematical methodologies.
This PE reference guide holds an edge over other books explicitly written on the topic of protection as it contains numerous protection-related problems and worked examples that the other books lack.
What adds more value to this book is that other than the exam section of “Protection,” it includes nearly half of the content on other subjects that feature in the PE Electrical and Power exam.
This PE reference guide is priced at $66.80 and has a star rating of 4.4 out of 5.0 on Amazon.
Here’s what one of the students stated about this electrical engineering PE review manual: “The book has a good flow and a good pace. The material is very well written academically.”
6. Electrical Machines, Drives, and Power Systems – Theodore Wildi
This is one of the most thorough and articulated PE exam books that has been a gold standard and a must-have for some of the most challenging PE Electrical and Power examination areas, like:
- Phasors
- Power Electronics
- Rotating Machines
- Single Phase and Three Phase Analysis
- Transformers
- Transformer Connections
This book also covers the following essential topics:
- Electrical and Electronic Drives
- Electric Utility Power Systems
- Magnetism and Circuits
- Mechanics and Heat
This PE reference guide comprises 934 pages and contains a myriad of practice problems at the end of each chapter and numerous worked-out examples that are simple to follow.
Furthermore:
It also includes detailed and comprehensive explanations that make the more complicated concepts straightforward and convenient to comprehend on a basic level, which is crucial for solving multiple versions of the same problem.
Having a star rating of 4.3 out of 5.0 on Amazon, you can purchase this professional engineering exam book for $33.59.
The students’ reviews also demonstrate the importance of this reference guide, and this review by one of the students is an excellent example of this:
“I got this book when studying for the Power PE the second time. This book is excellent. It has technical and practical information about motors, generators, transformers, etc. It was one of the 5 books I ended up using during my second go at the Power PE. You will find answers to unexpected PE questions in this book.”
7. 2017 Journeyman Electrician Exam Questions and Study Guide by Ray Holder
Do you require assistance with coding problems on the PE Electrical and Power examination?
Even though it was intended for journeyman electricians, this PE exam book is an excellent resource for becoming acquainted with the codebook and practice questions based on the National Electrical Code®.
Consisting of approximately 400 pages, this electrical engineering pe review manual contains twelve open book practice exams and two closed book final exams, which are beneficial to preparing for the PE examination.
This book is pretty massive, and it is a decent purchase as it is affordably priced at $39.95.
With an excellent star rating of 4.6 out of 5.0 on Amazon, this book holds some exceptional positive students reviews, such as:
“The book was very helpful for me to get a better grasp on calculations in the National Electric Codebook.”
8. Electric Machinery and Power System Fundamentals By Stephen J. Chapman
Stephen J. Chapman’s Electric Machinery and Power System Fundamentals is an excellent PE exam book to learn about transformers and rotating equipment such as generators and motors.
This book is the source of several transformer equivalent circuits in the current NCEES® Reference Handbook for the Power CBT PT Examination. It contains numerous examples and descriptions that are concise and simple to understand. Moreover, MATLAB is utilized in solving examples and questions all across the book.
It emphasizes fundamentals and teaches students how to use knowledge rather than doing a lot of calculations that a practicing engineer would seldom perform.
This electrical engineering pe review manual is priced at $65.98 and has a star rating of 4.4 out of 5.0 on Amazon.
The students’ reviews for this study guide suggest that it breaks down the material very well and is written in a language that is easy to understand. In addition, it covers enough technical information and examples that are relevant to the text.
9. Linden’s Handbook of Batteries
Are you searching for a PE reference guide to help you solve any of the PE exam’s battery-related questions?
Then look no further than the Handbook of Batteries by Linden!
Regarded as the “bible of batteries,” it is one of the best PE power exam study materials related to batteries, encompassing every kind of primary and secondary battery, along with chemical reactions, electrical circuit attributes, and implementations.
A goliath of 1456 pages, this book is essential for solving numerous qualitative application and theory-based questions about battery and quantitative problems related to battery circuits.
It covers topics like:
- Principles of Operation
- Primary and Secondary Batteries
- Specialized Battery Systems
- Fuel Cells and Electrochemical Capacitors
This study guide is priced at $130.99 and has an excellent star rating of 4.8 out of 5.0 on Amazon.
The students’ reviews highlight that the content of the book is very well structured and comprehensive that deals with almost all kinds of batteries. Here’s one review that caught out eye: “Great resource on all the latest battery tech.”
Conclusion
The PE Power exam will not seem like an insurmountable obstacle if you have the suitable electrical power PE exam study materials.
PE exam books are essential when studying for the PE Electrical and Power examination since they equip you with:
- Practice problems
- Brief descriptions of course material
- Comprehensive solutions to assist you in becoming conversant with an exam-like scenario
We hope this blog assisted you in choosing the top electrical engineering PE review manual.
If you want to know about the PE exam requirements to obtain a professional engineer license, we recommend checking out this article.
You might also love to look at our blog on the best tips for passing the PE exam.
Licensed Professional Engineer in Texas (PE), Florida (PE) and Ontario (P. Eng) with consulting experience in design, commissioning and plant engineering for clients in Energy, Mining and Infrastructure.