Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

transient fault
a fault that can appear (e.g., caused by electrical noise) and disappear within some short period of time.
transient impedance
the series impedance that a generator or motor exhibits following the subtransient period but prior to the steady-state situation.
transient open-circuit time constant
See quadrature-axis transient open-circuit time constant and direct-axis transient open-circuit time constant.
transient operation
a power system operating under abnormal conditions because of a disturbance.
transient reactance
the reactance offered for the transient currents in synchronous machines. Referred to by the symbol Xs, the transient reactance is a function of the stator frequency and the transient inductance. Xs is comparatively smaller in comparison to the steady-state inductive reactance of the machine.
transient short-circuit
time constant pass and stop bands are critical. A longer filter length generally implies that the filter can have a steeper transition band to a similarly shaped shorter length filter.
transient stability
the ability of a power system to remain stable following a system disturbance.
transient suppressor
a device connected to a piece of sensitive electrical equipment to reduce the amplitude of transient voltage excursions, thus protecting the equipment.