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Electrical and Electronic Abbreviations

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Electrical & Electronic Abbreviations and Acronyms Dictionary | CalcBoy

Electrical & Electronic Abbreviations

Complete Dictionary of Engineering Terminology and Technical Symbols
  • 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
  • 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
    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
    AVR ➠ Automatic Voltage Regulator
    AWA ➠ Aluminum Wire Armour
    AWG ➠ American Wire Gauge
  • 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)
  • 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)
    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
  • 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
    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.
  • 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
    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.
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
    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 ➠ 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
  • 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
  • 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
    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
  • 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
    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
    MVA ➠ Mega-volt-amperes
    MVAr ➠ Reactive mega-volt-amperes
    MW ➠ Megawatts
  • 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 ➠ 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
    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
    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
    PVDF ➠ Polyvinylidene fluoride
    PWD ➠ Pulse-width distortion
    PWM ➠ Pulse width modulation
    PWR ➠ Power
  • Q ➠ Reactive power, volt-amperes-reactive,Charge
    QA ➠ Quality assurance
    QAM ➠ Quadrature amplitude modulation
    QC ➠ Quality control
    QFP ➠ Quad Flat Package
    QTY ➠ Quantity
  • 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
    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)
  • 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
    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
    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
  • 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
    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 ➠ 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
  • 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
  • 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  ➠ Electrical reactance
    XFMR  ➠ Transformer
    XLPA  ➠ Cross-linked polyalkene
    XLPE  ➠ Cross-linked polyethylene
    XO ➠ Crystal Oscillator
  • Y ➠ Electrical admittance (Also used for Star Connection)
    y ➠ Year
  • Z  ➠ Electrical impedance
    ZH  ➠ Zero halogen, as used for cables
    ZVC  ➠ Zero voltage crossing
    ZVS ➠ Zero voltage switching

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Electrical and Electronic Abbreviations is a free online calculator tool. Use it to get instant, accurate results for your electronics calculations.