Wherever possible this guide uses terms that are standard across the industry. Inevitably regional and national differences exist. This section describes terms as used throughout this document:

Connected kVA: An unbalanced 3-phase solution of the current flows on a radial feeder. Sometimes known as the "Ladder Solution". The load flow is determined by simply summing up all downstream loads.

Distribution Xfmr (Transformer): The location where primary voltages are dropped to secondary voltages. Sometimes referred to as service xfmr.

Electrical Island: A subset of the network model of devices & feeders that are electrically connected. These islands can be energized (if they contain a source object) or de-energized. Most frequently, network models are divided into islands that contain whole substations with no interconnections. This term shouldn't be confused with the expression Islanded, which typically refers to a section of network isolated from the main supply and sustained by distributed generation.

Equivalent Source: Start of energization for an island. In ADMS applications they encapsulate the entire upstream network as a single Thévenin source.

Load: The part of the network model where customer load is accounted for in Load Flow analysis. Depending on the extent of the network that is being modeled in NMS this could any number of locations. Typical locations include: Distribution Xfmr, LV feeder Head, Customer Meter or a virtual device used to aggregate load.

Load flow: A generic term for determining the flow of power in a network. This can be Power flow, kVA Solution or Connected kVA.

kVA Solution: An unbalanced 3-phase solution of the current flows in an island. The solution does not consider losses and voltages are therefore nominal throughout the solution.

Operator: A user of the NMS system. The actual role might be dispatchers, controllers, planners, and so on.

Powerflow: A rigorous unbalanced 3-phase solution of the voltages and current flows in an island.

Power Xfmr (Transformer): Any transformer in the Transmission, Sub-Transmission, or Distribution parts of the network that does not have LV voltages on the secondary winding.