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3/19/22, 6:11 AM 800+ Electrical & Electronic Abbreviations with Full Forms.

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800+ Electrical & Electronic


Abbreviations with Full Forms. A-Z
 Electrical Technology 1  16 minutes read

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Abbreviations with


Full Forms 
Below is the list of 800+ short form or abbreviation with full form used in
electrical and electronic engineering. All the abreavtion are listed from A
to Z and Numerical form in Ascending form. You can press “CTRL + F”
and write the short form or paste in search box to go to the exact
matching abbreviation with full form.

Related Post: Electrical and Electronic Engineering Symbols

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A                     Amperes, amps.


App                  Peak-to-peak amperes
AA                   Anti-Aliasing
AAAC             All Aluminum Alloy Conductor
AAC                All Aluminum Conductor
AACSR          Aluminum Alloy Conductor Steel Reinforced
AAF                Anti-Aliasing Filter
ABC                Aerial Bundled Conductors or Cables
AB switch      Air Break switch
AC                  Alternating current or voltage
A/C                 Air Conditioning
ACAR             Aluminum Conductor Alloy Reinforced
ACB                Air Circuit Breaker
ACCB             Air Case Circuit Breaker
ACDB             Alternating Current Distribution Board
ACSR             Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced
ACVS             Air Conditioning & Ventilation System
ADC               Analog to Digital Converter
AF                   Audio Frequency or Audible Frequency
AFC                Automated Frequency Control
AFC                Available Fault Current
AFCB             Arc Fault Circuit Breaker
AFCI               Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter
AFL                 Amps Full Load
AFT                 Automatic Fine Tuning
AGC               Automatic Gain Control
AGME            American Gear Manufacturer’s Association
AGPS             Assisted (or Aided) GPS
AH                  Ampere-Hour Capacity of Batteries.
AHU               Air Handling Unit
AI                    Analog Input

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AI                    Artificial Intelligence


AIC                 Ampere Interrupting Capacity
AL                   Aluminum
ALCI               Appliance Leakage Current Interrupter
ALTC              Automatic Load Tap Changing
ALU                Arithmetic and Logic Unit
AMOLED       Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode
ANSI               American National Standards Institute.
AO                  Analog Output
AoA                Angle of Arrival
AOI                 Automatic Optical Inspection
AP                   Access Point
APD                Avalanche Photo Diode
APFC             Automatic Power Factor Control
API                  American Petroleum Institute, Application Program
Interface
ARM                           Advanced Reduced instruction set computing
Machine
ARMS             Arc Flash Reduction Maintenance Switch
ASCII              American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC               Application Specific Integrated Circuit
ASK                Amplitude Shift Keying
ASME             American Society for Testing and Materials
ASP                Application Service Provider
ASTA              Association of Short-circuit Testing Authorities.
ATS                Automatic Transfer Switch
ATC                Automatic Temperature Control
ATMega          Microcontroller Cip created by Atmel in the megaAVR
family
ATMEL           Advanced Technology for Memory and Logic
AV                   Audio/video
AVO-M            Ampere-Volt-Ohm Meter
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AVR                Automatic Voltage Regulator


AWA               Aluminum Wire Armour
AWG               American Wire Gauge

Related Post: 5000+ Electrical and Electronics Engineering


Formulas and Equations

B
B or b              Electrical Susceptance
Bar or bar       Pressure in atmospheres.
BASEEFA       British Approvals Service for Electrical Equipment in
Flammable Atmospheres
BBM               Break before Make
BCD               Binary Coded Decimal
BCR               Backspace card reader and Barcode reader
BER                Bit Error Rate
BEV                Billion Electron Volts
BGA                Ball Grid Array
BIL                  Breakdown insulation level
BJT                 Bipolar Junction Transistor
BLAC             Brushless AC
BLDC             Brushless DC
BLDM             Brushless DC Motor
BOM               Bill Of Materials
BPF                Band Pass Filter
bps                  Bit per second
Bps                 Byte per second
BSI, BS, CP    British Standards Institution, or its publications
BTS                Base Transceiver Station
BTU                British thermal unit
BW                 Bandwidth, (difference between upper and lower limits
of a band of frequencies)
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C                     Electrical capacitance, Conduit


CA                  Criticality Analysis
CAAPS          Circuit Assembly And Processing System
CACA             Totally enclosed air circuit, air cooled.
CACW            Totally enclosed air circuit, water cooled.
CAD               Computer aided design.
CAN               Controller area network
CATV             Cable Television or Community Antennae Television
CB                  Circuit breaker
CBCU            Circuit breaker control unit.
CBI                 Complementary Binary, referring to a system of codes
CBM               Certified Ballast Manufacturer
CBR               Constant Bit Rate
CC                  Constant Current
CCCS             Current Controlled Current Source
CCD               Charge-Coupled Device
CCR               Central control room
CCT                Circuit (also: CIR, CKT)
CCTV             Closed Circuit Television
CCU               Central control unit
CD                  Candela
CDMA             Code Division Multiple Access
CEGB             Central Electricity Generating Board (UK)
CENELEC      European Committee for Electro technical
Standardization
cont.               Continuous quantity
CFL                Compact Fluorescent Light or Compact Fluorescent
Lamp
CG                  Cable Glands
CIR                 Circuit (also: CCT, CKT)
CISC              Complex Instruction Set Computer
CKT                Circuit (also: CCT, CIR)
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CLF                Current Limiting Fuse


CMOS            Complementary Metal – Oxide Semiconductor
CMRR             Common Mode Rejection Ratio
CNC               Computer Numeric Control
COG               Chip-on-glass
COR CU        Corrugated Copper.
Cos θ             Power factor.
CPLD             Complex Programmable Logic Device
CPT                Control Power Transformer
CPU               Central Processing Unit
CRO               Cathode Ray Oscilloscope
CRT                Cathode Ray Tube
CSA, csa       Cross-Sectional Area
CSI                 Current Source Inverter
CSP                Chloro Sulphonated Polyethylene
CSS                Computerized Synchronizing System
CT                   Current Transformer
CU                  Un-tinned Copper
CUWB            Copper Wire Braid
CVT                Constant Voltage Transformer

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d                     Day.
DAC               Digital to Analog Converter
db(A)              Measurement unit of sound, Decibels, absolute.
dBm               Unit level for power ratio expressed in decibels (dB)
with reference to one mill watt (mW)
DB                  Distribution Board
DC                  Direct Current or Voltage
DCDB             Direct Current Distribution Board
DCS               Distributed Control System
DE                  Drive End of a shaft
DEMUX         Demultiplexer, Single input into multiple outputs
DFT                Discrete Fourier Transform
DIA                 Diameter
DIMM              Dual-In-line Memory Module
DIN                               Deutsches Institut für Normung means German
Institute for Standardization
DIP                 Dual-in-Line Package
DIPS               Dual-In-Line Sockets
DLD                Digital Logic Design
DLL                 Delay Locked Loop
DMA               Direct Memory Access
DMM               Digital Multimeter
DMS               Data management system
DMT                Definite minimum time
DNC               Do Not Connect
DO fuse         Drop Out Fuse
DOL                Direct-on-line starting of induction motors.
DOS               Disk Operating System
DP                  Double Pole or Distribution Panel 
DPDT             Double Pole, Double Throw
DPI                 Dots Per Inch
DPIC              Double Pole Iron Clad
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DPM               Digital panel meter


DPR               Dividing Pulse Relay
DPST             Double Pole, Single Throw
DRAM             Dynamic Random Access Memory
DRC               Design Rule Checking
DSP                Differential Signal Processing
DTMF             Dual Tone Multi-Frequency
DTL                 Diode Transistor Logic
DTSP             Discrete Time Signal Processing
DUT                Device Under Test
DVM               Digital Volt Meter
DWR              Divided winding rotor synchronous generator.

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E                     Earth or ground


EB                   Equipment Branch
EBIC               Electron-Beam-Induced Current
EC                  Electrical Code or Electrical Contractor or Electronic
Commutator
ECAD             Electronic Computer-Aided Design
ECHA             Equipment certified for hazardous areas.
ECL                Emitter coupled logic
EEC                European Economic Community
EEMVA                 Engineering Equipment and Materials Users
Association
EEPROM            Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only
Memory
EF                   Exhaust Fan
EFT                 Electrical fast transient
EHT                Extra High Tension
EHV                Extra high voltage
EIEMA                     Electrical Installation Equipment Manufacturer’s
Association (UK)
ELCB              Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker
ELDC             Electric Double-Layer Capacitors (supercap)
ELEV              Elevator
ELV                Extra low voltage, less than 51 volts
EM                  Emergency
EMA               Ethylene methyl acrylate
EMC               Electromagnetic compatibility
EMI                 Electromagnetic interference
EMF, e.m.f.    Electromotive force
EMLDB          Emergency Lighting Distribution Board
EMR               Electro Mechanical Relay
EMT                Electrical Metallic Tubing
EOCR              Electronic Overcurrent Relay

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EOS                Electrical Over Stress


EP                   Emergency Power
EPDM            Ethylene propylene diene monomer
EPO                Emergency Power Off (Button or Switch)
EPR                Ethylene propylene rubber
EPROM         Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
ERA                Electrical Research Association (UK)
ERM               Electronic restart module
ESD                Emergency shutdown, Electrostatic discharge
ESL                Equivalent Series Inductance
ESP                Electric submersible pump
ESR                Equivalent Series Resistance
EST                Extra Super Tension
Ex (), Ex ‘ ’     Certification symbol for hazardous area equipment.
EEx (), EEx ‘ ’ Certification symbol for hazardous area equipment,
with European harmonisation of standards.
EV                   Electron volt, a unit of energy similar to joules
EWC               Electric Water Cooler
EWS               Engineering work station.

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F, f or Hz        Frequency, Fuse, Farad


FA                  Fire Alarm
FAA                Fire Alarm Annunciator
FAT                 Factory acceptance testing
FBA                Factory built assemblies.
FBT                 Fly back Transformer
FCEV             Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
FCU                Feeder control unit.
FDM               Frequency Division Multiplexing
FDNR             Frequency Dependent Negative Resistor
F and G          Fire and Gas
FEED             Front-end engineering and design of a project.
FET                Field Effect Transistor
FFC                Flexible Flat Cable
FFT                 Fast Fourier Transform
FIFO               First-In, First-Out (a queue)
FILO               First-In, Last-Out (a stack)
FLA                 Full Load Amperes
Flex                Flexible, used for cables.
FM                  Frequency Modulation
FMC               Flexible Metal Conduit
FPGA             Field-Programmable Gate Array
Freq                Frequency
FRLS              Fire Resistance Low Smoke
FSC                Final Sub Circuit
FSM                Finite State Machine
FSK                Frequency Shift Keying
FVC                Frequency to Voltage Converter

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G or g             Electrical conductance, or ground


GBW               Gain Bandwidth Product
GCB               Gas circuit breaker.
GCP               Generator control panel.
GFCI               Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter
GFI                  Ground Fault Interrupter
GIC                 Generalized Impedance Converter
GIS                 Gas insulated switchgear.
gm                   Transconductance
GND               Ground
GO                  Gang Operated
GOR               Gas to oil ratio of oil well fluids
GOS               Group Operated Switches
GPIO              General Purpose Input / Output
GPRS             General Packet Radio Service
GPS                Global Positioning System
GRMC            Galvanized Rigid Metal Conduit
GRP               Glass reinforced plastic.
GSM               Global System for Mobile Communications
GSWA            Galvanized steel wire armour
GSWB            Galvanized steel wire braid.
GTG or GT     Gas-turbine generator
GTO                Gate turn off thyristor
GUI                 Graphic User Interface

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h or hr            Hour.
HART             Highway Addressable Remote Transducer
HBT                Heterojunction bipolar transistor
HCL                Hydrogen chloride, gas or acid
HDMI              High-Definition Multimedia Interface
HED               Hall Effect Device
HEMT             High-electron-mobility transistor
HF                   High frequency
hFE                Large-signal current gain of a BJT
HMI                 Human Machine Interface
HOA               Hand-Off-Automatic Switch
HOFR             Heat and oil resisting, flame retardant.
Hp                   Horse power, unit of power in fps system
HPF                High Pass Filter
HRC               High rupturing capacity
HT                   High Tension
HTS                High-temperature semiconductor
HUI                 Human User Interface
HV                  High voltage, above 600 volts
HVAC             Heating ventilation and air conditioning
Hz                   Frequency in cycles per second, or hertz

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I                       Current in amperes


IAC or Iac       Alternating current
IALA               International Association of Lighthouse Authorities
IC                    Integrated circuit
ICDB              Iron Clad Distribution Board
ICI                   Imperial Chemical Industries plc (UK)
ICSP               In Circuit Serial Programming
ICTP               Iron Clad Triple Pole
IDC, Idc          Direct current
IDMT               Inverse definite minimum time
IEC                 International Electrotechnical Commission
IEE                  Institution of Electrical Engineers of UK
IEEE               Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers of USA
IF                     Intermediate Frequency
IFT                  Inverse Fourier Transform
IG                    Isolated Ground
IGBT               Insulated-gate Bipolar Transistor
IGFET             Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor
I/O                   Input or output signals or quantity
IOT                  Internet of Things
IMO                 International Maritime Organization
IMC                 Intermediate Metal Conduit
IMCS              Integrated motor control system
IMS                 Information management system
inst.                 Instantaneous quantity
INT                  Interlock
int.                   Intermittent quantity
IP                    Institute of Petroleum (UK) and its publications
IP                    Ingress protection code, see IEC60529
IPMSM           Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
IR                    Insulation resistance

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IS                    Intrinsically safe signal, circuit or equipment


Is/In, IS/IN      Ratio of starting current to running current
ISO                 International Standards Organization
ISP                  Internet Service Provider
ITU                  International Telecommunication Union

J
J                      Energy in joules or newton-meters
J                      Current density, amps/mm2
JB                   Junction Box
JFET               Junction field effect transistor
JEDEC           Joint Electron Device Engineering Council

K
kA                   Kilo-amperes
KCL                Kirchhoff’s Current Law
KCMIL            Thousand Circular Mils
KEMA             Short circuit testing authority in The Netherlands
kg                    Kilogram.
km                   Length in kilometers
kpm                 Kilometers per hour.
kV, Ku            Kilo-volts.
kVA                 Kilo-volt-amperes.
kVAr               Reactive kilo-volt-amperes.
KVL                Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law
kW                  Kilowatts.
KWH               Kilo Watt Hour

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L                      Electrical inductance in henries


L                      Line (Phase, Live or Hot) or local control operation
LA                   Lightning Arrester
LAN                Local area network
lbs                   Weight of a substance in pounds.
LCD                Liquid-crystal display
LDB                Lighting Distribution Board
LDR                Light Dependent Resistor
LDS                Low density foam
LED                Light emitting diode
LEL                 Lower explosive limit
LF                   Low frequency
LFMC             Liquid Tight Flexible Metal Conduit
LHS                Left-hand side
Li–ion             Lithium Ion, a type of rechargeable battery
Lloyds            Lloyds Register of Shipping (UK)
LMS                Load management system
LNA                Low noise amplifier
LNG                Liquefied natural gas
loc or (L)         Local operation
LOP                Loss of power
LOPT              Line Output Transformer
LOS                Loss of signal
LPF                 Low Pass Filter
LPG                Liquefied petroleum gas
LPS                Lightning Protection System
LRA                Locked Rotor Amperes
LSB                Least Significant Bit
LSDS, LSS    Load shedding system
LSF                 Low smoke and fumes, applied to cables and wires.
LSI                  Large-scale integration

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LSLH              Low smoke low halogen


LSRS, LSR   Load sharing system
LT                    Low Tension
LTG                 Lighting
LV                   Low voltage, 50 to 600 volts
LVDT              Linear Variable Differential Transformer
L1, L2, L3, N Notation for line and neutral voltages and currents.
LUT                 Look Up Table
LUX                Level of illumination
LVDT              Linear Variable Differential Transformer

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m                     Length or dimension in meters, or month


mA                  Current in milli-amperes
MAD               Mean Annual Discharge
man or (M)     Manual operation
mbar               Milli-bar
MB                  High-pressure mercury, without phosphor coating
MB                  Megabyte, a computer date storage unit
MBB               Make-before-break
MBF                High-pressure mercury, with phosphor coating
MBFR             High-pressure mercury, with phosphor coating and
internal reflector
MBI                 High-pressure discharge with metallic halides
MBIF               High-pressure discharge with metallic halides, with
phosphor coating
MBR               Double-ended linear arc tube
MBTF             Combination of MBF lamp and a filament lamp
MC                  Metal Clad Cable
MCB               Miniature circuit breaker.
MCC               Motor control center
MCCB            Moulded case circuit breaker
MCM               Multi-Chip Module
MCP               Motor Circuit Protection
MCR               Maximum continuous rating
MCU               Motor control unit
MCu               Microcontroller
MDB               Main Distribution Board
MEC               Micro Energy Cell
MEMS            Micro ElectroMechanical Systems
MESFET        Metal-Semiconductor Field-Effect-Transistor
MESG            Maximum experimental safe gap
MF                  Multiplying Factor
MFSK             Multiple frequency-shift keying
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Mho                Unit of electrical admittance


MI                    Mineral Insulated
MIC                 Minimum ignition current
MICC              Mineral insulated calendar cable
MIDI                Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIMIC             Mimic display panel
MISO              Master Input Slave Output
MLDB             Main Lighting Distribution Board
MLO                Main Lugs Only
mm                 Length or dimension in millimeters
MMF, mmf       Magneto-motive force
MMI                 Man–machine interface.
MMSCF           Million standard cubic feet of a gas
Mole %           Molecular weight in %
MOSFET        Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor
MOSI              Master Output Slave Input
MOV               Metal oxide varistor
MPCB             Motor Protection Circuit Breaker
MPDB            Main Power Distribution Board
MPPT             Maximum Power Point Tracking
MPU               Microprocessor
MS                  Main Switch
MSB               Most Significant Bit
MSW              Module steelwork
MT                   Mica glass tape
MTBF              Mean time between failures
MTTR             Mean time to repair
MUX               Multiplexer, several analog or digital inputs into single
output
MV                  Medium voltage
mV                  Voltage in millivolts

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MVA               Mega-volt-amperes


MVAr              Reactive mega-volt-amperes
MW                 Megawatts

N
N or n             Number of items e.g. generators installed
N or n             Number of turns in a winding
N or n             Neutral terminal or line Neutral
NACE             National Association of Corrosion Engineers (USA)
NBR               Nitrile butadiene rubber
NC, N/C         Normally closed switching device, No Connection
NCT                Neutral Current Transformer
NDE               Non-drive end of a shaft.
NEC               National Electric Code (USA)
NEMA                     The National Electrical Manufacturer’s Association
(USA)
NER               Neutral earth resistor.
NFPA              National Fire Protection Association (USA)
Ni                    Nickel metal
NL                   Neutral Link, Night Light
NO, N/O         Normally open switching device
NOx                Nitrogen based gas emissions.
NPR               Noise-power ratio
NPT                National pipe threads (USA).
NRZ                Non Return to Zero
NS                  Used to describe a type of variable speed AC motor
NTC                Negative Temperature Coefficient
NTS                Not to scale
NVM               Non Volatile Memory

O
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O                    Open, off or stop


OC, O/C         Overcurrent or open circuit
OCB               Oil circuit breaker
OCTC             On-circuit Tap Changer
OCV                            Open Circuit Voltage, the difference in electrical
potential when disconnected from a circuit
OF, O/F          Over frequency
OFAF              Forced circulation of internal liquid, forced heat
exchanging to external air.
OFAN                       Forced circulation of internal liquid, natural heat
exchanging to external air.
OHL, OHLine Overhead line
Ohms              Unit of electrical resistance or impedance
OIM                 Offshore installation manager
OL, O/L           Overload
OLED             Organic light-emitting diode
OLP                OverLoad Protection
OLR                OverLoad Relay
OLTC              On-load Tap Changer
ONAF                       Naturally circulated internal liquid, forced heat
exchanging to external air
ONAN                     Naturally circulated internal liquid, natural heat
exchanging to external air
OpAmp           Operational Amplifier
OSC               Oscillator
OSHA             Occupational Health and Safety Administration (USA)
OTA                Operational Transconductance Amplifier
OV, O/V          Overvoltage.
OVP                Overvoltage Protector

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P or W            Active power, watts, Pole


p, s                                 Laplace operator in mathematics, for transfer
functions
P & ID             Piping and instrument diagram
PA                   Public address system
PAL                Programmable Array Logic
PAM               Pulse or pole amplitude modulation
PB                   Push Button or Panic Button or Pull Box
PB, Pb            Lead metal
PBWB            Phosphor bronze wire braid
PBCU, TCU   Tinned copper
PC                  Programmable controller, Program counter; used in
microcontroller
PCB               Printed circuit board
PCC               Point of common connection, Power Control Centre
PCM               Pulse-code modulation
PDA                Personal digital assistant
PDB                Power Distribution Board
PDM               Pulse density modulation
PDP                Power Distribution Panel
PEC                PhotoElectric Cell
PELV                         An extra-low voltage system similar to SELV but
connected to earth at some point
PF, pf              Power factor
PFD                Phase/frequency detector
PFM                Pulse Frequency Modulation
PGA                Programmable Gain Amplifier
Ph, ph            Phases of an electrical circuit
PID                 Proportional, Integral, Derivative. A type of controller
used in control systems
PIR                 Passive Infrared Sensors
PIV                  Peak Inverse Voltage

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pk, peak         Peak value of an instantaneous quantity


PLA                Programmable logic array
PLC                Programmable logic controller
PLCC             Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier
PLL                 Phase-Locked Loop
PM                  Permanent Magnet
PMIC              Power Management Integrated
pMOS             P-channel metal-oxide semiconductor
PMS               Power management system
PMSM            Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
PNL                Panel
POL                Polyethylene, Point-of-load
POR               Power-on reset
Pot                  Potentiometer
POV                Peak Operating Voltage
PPM               Pulse Position Modulation, Parts Per Million
PRC               Parasitic resistance cancellation
PRV                Peak Reverse Voltage
PSI                  Pounds per Square Inch
PSK                Phase Shift Keying
PSR                Power-supply rejection
PSRR             Power Supply Rejection Ratio
PT                   Potential Transformer
PTB                Physilalish Technische Bundesanstalt
PTC                Positive Temperature Coefficient
PTP                Polyethylene terephthalate
PTFE              Poly tetra fluoro ethylene
Pu, p.u.          Per unit
PUT                Programmable Unijunction Transistor
PV                  PhotoVoltaic
PVC                Polyvinyl chloride

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PVDF             Polyvinylidene fluoride


PWD               Pulse-width distortion
PWM              Pulse width modulation
PWR               Power

Q
Q                     Reactive power, volt-amperes-reactive, Charge
QA                  Quality assurance
QAM               Quadrature amplitude modulation
QC                  Quality control
QFP                Quad Flat Package
QTY                Quantity

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R or r              Electrical resistance


Rad, rad         Angular displacement in radians
RADAR          Radio Detection and Ranging
RAM               Random access memory
RCBO              Residual Current Circuit Breaker with Overload
Protection
RCCB            means Residual Current Circuit Breaker
RCD               Residual current device
RCU               Remote control unit
RDOL             Reverse Duty On Line Starter
Ref.                 Reference
rem or (R)      Remote operation
REQ               Required
RF                   Radio Frequency, describing the rate of oscillation
RFDS             Radio frequency design system
RFID               Radio Frequency Identification
RGB               Red Green Blue
RGS               Rigid Galvanized Steel Conduit
RHS               Right-hand side
RIO                 Remote Input Output
RISC              Reduced Instruction Set Computer
RJ45               Registered Jack 45. An 8 pin Ethernet Jack
RLA                Rated Load Amperes
RLC                Resistance Inductance Capacitance
RMC               Rigid Metal Conduit
RMG               Ring Main Gear
RMS, rms       Root mean square
RMU               Ring main unit
RNC               Rigid Non-Metallic Conduit
ROM               Read only memory
RPR               Reverse Power Relay

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RPS                Revolutions per Second


RPM               Revolutions per Minute
RSC               Rigid Steel Conduit
RTC                Real-time clock
RTD                Resistance temperature detector
RTOS             Real Time Operating System
RTS                Remote Test Station
RTU                Remote transmitter unit, Roof Top Unit
Rx                   Receiver
RYB                Red, Yellow, Blue (Old Color Codes used for three
phase Wiring – UK)

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S                     Apparent power in volt-amperes


s or p                         Laplace operator in mathematics, for transfer
functions
S                     Slip of a rotating machine with respect to 1.0 pu
SAW               Surface Acoustic Wave
SB                   Switch Board
SBM               Single buoy mooring
SC, S/C          Short circuit
SCADA          Supervisory control and data acquisition system
SCF                Standard cubic feet of a gas
SCIM              Squirrel Cage Induction Motor
SCK                Serial Clock
SCR               Silicon Controlled Rectifier
SCS                Silicon Controller Switch
SCSI               Small Computer System Interface
SDR               Single discipline review
SEB                Service End Line Box or Service Electrical Box
SECT              Skin effect current trace heating
SELV              Safety extra-low voltage
SFU                Switch Fuse Unit
SF6                 Sulphur hexafluoride
SI                    System International of Unit’s
SIM                 Subscriber identity module
SIO                 Serial Input and (serial) Output
SIPO               Serial In Parallel Out
SLDB             Secondary Lighting Distribution Board
SLI                  Double-ended, linear arc tube
SMD               Surface Mount Device
SMPS             Switch-mode power supply
SMSB             Sub Main Switchboard
SMT                Surface mount technologies

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SNR               Signal-to-Noise Ratio


SoC                System on a Chip
SOIC              Small Outline Integrated Circuit
SOLAS           Safety of life at sea, a document relating to marine
practice
SON               Diffused ellipsoidal outer bulb, single-ended lamp
SONAR          SOund NAvigation and Ranging
SON-T            Clear tubular outer bulb, single-ended lamp
SON-TD, – L Clear tubular outer bulb, double-ended lamp
SON-R           SON lamp, with internal reflector
SOL CU         Solid copper
SOP                Small Outline Package
SOT                Small outline transistor
SOX                U-shaped arc tube, single-ended lamp
Sox                 Sulphur based gas emissions
SP                   Single phase
SPDT             Single Pole Double Throw
SPI                  Serial Peripheral Interface
SPICE            Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis
SPMSM         Surface Permanent magnet Synchronous Motor
SPST              Single Pole Single Throw
SPT                Stranded Parallel Thermoplastic
sq                    Square, e.g. sq mm is square millimeters
SR                  Shift Register, Slew Rate
SRAM             Static Random Access Memory
SRF                Self-resonant frequency
SRIM              Slip Ring Induction Motor
SRM               Switched Reluctance Motor
SSB                Single SideBand
SSI                  Small Scale Integration
SSR                Solid State Relay, Synchronization check protection
relay
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ST                   Super Tension, Shunt Trip


STA                Steel Tape Armoure
STG                Steam turbine generator
STP                Shielded Twisted Pair
STR                Statimax Trip Release
STR CU         Stranded copper
SW                  Switch, Shortwave, as in the case with shortwave
bands
SWA               Steel wire armour
SWBD            Switchboard
SWG               Standard Wire Gauge
SWGR            Switchgear
SYNC, Sync  Synchronizing
SYM               Symmetrical
SyRM             Synchronous Reluctance Motor

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T or t               Time, usually in seconds


TB                   Terminal Block
Td                    Time constant in seconds for the quantity ‘d’
TC                  Temperature Coefficient
TCP/IP           Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TDRM             Time delayed restart relay
TEFC              Totally enclosed fan cooled
TEL                 Telephone
TEM                Transverse Electromagnetic (wave)        
temp.              Temperature
TESFC           Totally enclosed separate fan cooled, fan attached to
an auxiliary motor Shaft
TF                   Transfer Function
T/F                  Transformer
TFD                Thin Film Detector
TFT                 Thin Film Transistor
TG                   Turbo-generator, gas or steam
TGB                Telecommunications Grounding Bus bar
THD                Total Harmonic Distortion
THF                Telephone harmonic factor
TOP                Gas-turbine operating temperature (hot-end blade
temperature)
TM                   Technical measurement system of units
TMCB             Thermal Magnetic Circuit Breaker
TCP                Gas-turbine control panel
TLX                 Cold starting tubular fluorescent lamp, with single-pin
caps
TPDT              Triple Pole Double Throw
TPIC               Triple Pole Iron Clad
TPN                Three-phase and neutral power supply
TPPL              Total plant peak load
TPRL              Total plant running load
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TPS                Triple Pole Switch


TPST              Triple Pole Single Throw
Tran., Tx         Transformer
TRS                Tough Rubber Sheathed
TTL                 Transistor-Transistor Logic
TVS-Diode    Transient Voltage Suppression Diode
Tx                    Transmitter

U
U                     Voltage, also used for energy
UART             Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter
UC, U/C         Undercurrent
UCP               Unit control panel
UDS               Uniform Drawing System
UEL                Upper explosive limit
UF, U/F          Under frequency
UG                  Under Ground
UHF                Ultra high frequency
UI, U/I             Undercurrent
UJT                 Unijunction Transistor
UL, U/L           Under load
UL                   Underwriters Laboratory (USA)
UVLO             Under voltage lockout
UNO               Unless noted otherwise
UPS                Uninterruptible power supply unit
USART           Universal Synchronous and Asynchronous Receiver
and Transmitter
USB                Universal Serial Bus
UTP                Unshielded Twisted Pair
UV, U/V          Under voltage

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V, U                Voltage or volts


VA                   Volt-amperes
VAC, Vac       Alternating voltage
VAr, Var         Reactive volt-amperes
VCA                Voltage Controlled Amplifier
VCB                Vacuum Circuit Breaker
VCC               Voltage at the common collector
VCCS             Voltage Controlled Current Source
VCD               Variable Capacitance Diode
VCO               Voltage Controlled Oscillator
VCXO             Voltage-Controlled Crystal Oscillator
VDC, Vdc      Direct voltage
VDE                Verband Deutscher Electrechniker (Germany).
VDI                 Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (Germany).
VDU               Visual display unit
VFD                            Variable Frequency Drive, Vacuum Fluorescent
Display
VFDP             Variable Frequency Drive Panel
VFO                Variable-frequency oscillator
VGA                Video Graphics Adapter
VHF                Very high frequency
VIR                 Vulcanized Indian Rubber
VLSI               Very Large Scale Integration
VOM               Volt Ohm Meter, a device also known as a millimeter
or multitester
VSD, VSDS  Variable speed drive systems
VSI                  Voltage source inverter
VSWR            Voltage Standing Wave Ratio
V.T., VT          Voltage transformer
v/v                   Comparison by volume, per-unit
VVVF               Variable Voltage Variable Frequency Drive

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W
W or P            Active power, watts
w or ω            Frequency in radians per second.
wdg.                Winding of a machine or transformer
WH                 Water Heater
WHRU           Waste heat recovery unit
WLAN            Wireless Local Area Network
WP                  Weather Proof
WRIM             Wound Rotor Induction Motor
WRSM           Wound Rotor Synchronous Motor
WSN               Wireless Sensor Network

X
X                     Electrical reactance
XFMR             Transformer
XLPA              Cross-linked polyalkene
XLPE              Cross-linked polyethylene
XO                  Crystal Oscillator

Y
Y                     Electrical admittance (Also used for Star Connection)

y                      Year

Z
Z                      Electrical impedance
ZH                   Zero halogen, as used for cables
ZVC                Zero voltage crossing
ZVS                Zero voltage switching

Numerical
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1P, SP            Single phase


3P                   Three-phase supply
3P-N               Three-phase and neutral supply
3P-N-E           Three-phase neutral and earth supply
2W                  Two-wire supply
3W                  Three-wire supply
4W                  Four-wire supply
3G                   Third Generation
3R3                 3.3 ohm Resistor
4K                   4,000 pixels
4P4T               Quad-Pole Quad-Throw
4WJ                Four-Way Junction

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