On a worldwide basis, the annual market for medium and high voltage protective relaying products and equipment currently exceeds the $1 billion level as we move further into the 21st century. Only a portion of the total market for protective relays is made up of the world's electric utilities directly, with significant indirect sales made to industrial companies, to OEM suppliers that integrate relays into other equipment used by utilities and industrial/commercial end-users, and to independent power producers. More