Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

apparent power
(1) in an AC system, the product of voltage, Eand current, I. Apparent power (or total power) is composed of two mutually independent components -- an active component (real power), and a reactive component (imaginary power). Apparent power is denoted by S, and has the unit of voltamperes.
(2) the scalar product of the voltage and current delivered to the load. It can also be expressed as the vector S = P + jQ, where P = real power and Q = reactive power.