Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

candlepower distribution
a curve, generally polar, representing the variation of luminous intensity of a lamp or luminaire in a plane through the light center.
current distribution factor
in economic dispatch studies, the proportion of a power line's total current which is contributed by a particular generating plant.
distribution
(1) the possibility to execute different parts of a system on different processors.
(2) that class of electric power system work which is concerned with the distribution of electric power within a load area such as a residential or commercial area, or within an industrial installation. The distribution circuit extends from the local substation and terminates at the customer's meter.
distribution switchboard
a switchboard used in the distribution system, typically within a building.
distribution transformer
a transformer designed for use on a power distribution system (typically 2.4 kV to 34.5 kV) to supply electrical power to a load at the proper utilization voltage.
line outage distribution factor
a ratio used in contingency analysis. Given two parallel lines in a power system called x and y, assume that line y is removed from service. The line outage distribution factor of line x for the outage of line y is the ratio of the change in power flow on line x to the flow on line y before the outage.
secondary distribution system
a distribution system in which a significant the subdivision of power to customers is done on the secondary, or low-voltage side of the distribution transformer, as opposed to the practice of assigning a small distribution transformer to each customer or small group of customers.
underground distribution
a class of electric power distribution work, typically used in densely-populated urban business districts, in which conductors are carried in conduits under streets between manholes and submersible distribution transformers are mounted in underground vaults.
underground residential distribution
practices involved in the underground distribution of electric power to residential subdivisions through direct-buried cables and pad mound transformers.