White paper 05 · Annex B
Glossary of terms and abbreviations
This glossary explains the technical terms, units and abbreviations used in this paper, in plain language for readers who are not specialists in power systems or steelmaking.
Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Arc furnace, electric arc furnace (EAF) | A furnace that melts scrap, DRI or HBI with electric arcs struck between graphite electrodes and the metal charge |
| Auxiliaries | The supporting equipment of a steelworks: pumps, fans, compressors, the oxygen plant, cranes and buildings |
| Balancing | Matching a customer’s consumption with its supplier’s injections into the grid, and settling the differences |
| Billet | A semi-finished steel product of square section, cast continuously and rolled into bars, rod or light sections |
| Bore-in | The first minutes of melting each charge, when the arcs burn into cold scrap and the electrical load is most unstable |
| Capacity charge | The part of a tariff paid per kW of subscribed or maximum demand, regardless of energy used |
| Capacity factor | Energy actually produced in a year divided by what the plant would produce at full output all year |
| Combined margin | A grid emission factor that blends the plants operating at the margin today with recently built plants; used by lenders for project accounting |
| Compensation (reactive) | Equipment that supplies or absorbs reactive power close to a load, stabilising voltage |
| Connection code | The rules that define the technical obligations of users connected to a network |
| Direct reduction, direct-reduced iron (DRI) | Removing oxygen from iron ore in the solid state with a reducing gas; the product is porous metallic iron |
| DR-grade pellets | Iron ore pellets of high iron content (at least about 64% Fe) and low impurities, suitable for direct reduction |
| Eligible customer | Under Cameroon’s electricity law, a customer allowed to buy from an independent producer at a negotiated price |
| Fault level, short-circuit power (Ssc) | The power that would flow into a short circuit at a point of the network; a measure of the network’s electrical stiffness |
| Firmness | The degree to which a supply is guaranteed, in MW and hours, with remedies if it fails |
| Flicker (Pst, Plt) | Rapid voltage fluctuations that make lamps flicker; Pst is short-term severity over 10 minutes, Plt long-term over 2 hours |
| Floating LNG (FLNG) | A vessel that liquefies natural gas offshore for export |
| Harmonics | Currents and voltages at multiples of the 50 Hz supply frequency, created by non-linear loads such as arcs and power electronics |
| Hot-briquetted iron (HBI) | DRI pressed hot into dense briquettes that can be shipped and stored safely |
| Hot charging | Feeding billets to the reheating step while still hot from the caster, saving energy |
| Independent power producer (IPP) | A privately or jointly owned generator that sells power under contract |
| Induction heating | Heating billets with a high-frequency magnetic field that induces currents in the steel |
| Interruptible load | A load that the grid operator may curtail for longer periods under agreed conditions, usually in return for a lower price; a single-furnace melt shop cannot offer it without losing output |
| Ladle furnace (LF) | A smaller arc furnace that refines liquid steel and adjusts its temperature before casting |
| Levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) | The average cost per kWh of a plant over its life, including capital and operating costs |
| Load factor, utilisation | Average load divided by maximum demand, or hours of use at maximum demand |
| Market-based method | A way of reporting Scope 2 emissions that uses the emission factor of contracted supply rather than the grid average |
| Maximum demand | The highest average load over a stated interval (often 15 minutes), used to set capacity charges |
| Merchant billet | A billet sold to another company’s rolling mill rather than rolled by its maker |
| Metallic charge | The iron-bearing materials melted in the furnace: scrap, DRI, HBI or pig iron |
| N-1, N-2 | Security criteria: the system still supplies the load after the loss of one (or two) elements, such as a line or transformer |
| Nameplate and sustained output | Nameplate output is a plant’s design capacity; sustained output is what it is expected to produce in a mature year, after planned and unplanned stops |
| Point of common coupling (PCC) | The point on the public network nearest to a customer where other customers are or could be connected; power-quality limits apply there |
| Re-roller | A rolling mill that buys billets or scrap-based billets and rolls them into bars or rod, without its own steelmaking |
| Reactive power | The part of electrical power that sustains magnetic fields; it loads networks and lowers voltage without doing useful work |
| Reheating furnace | A gas-fired furnace that heats billets or blooms to rolling temperature |
| Run-of-river | A hydro plant with little storage, whose output follows river flow |
| Scope 1, 2, 3 | Direct emissions of a plant; emissions from the electricity it buys; other emissions in its supply chain |
| Schedulable load | A load whose timing can be shifted within the day, for example melting around the grid’s peaks, without reducing annual output |
| Shaft furnace | The vertical reactor in which pellets are reduced to DRI by a rising flow of reducing gas |
| Static var compensator (SVC) | Equipment of thyristor-controlled reactors and capacitor filters that absorbs a furnace’s reactive power swings |
| STATCOM | A static synchronous compensator: a power-electronic converter that supplies or absorbs reactive power very quickly |
| Time-of-use price | An energy price that varies with the time of day, higher at the system peak |
| Take-or-pay | A contract clause under which the buyer pays for a minimum quantity whether or not it takes it |
| Wheeling | Transporting electricity bought from one producer across the network to a customer, for a transmission fee |
Source: Cameroon Steel.
Abbreviations and units
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AfDB | African Development Bank |
| ARSEL | Agence de Régulation du Secteur de l’Électricité, the electricity regulator |
| bcf, Tcf | Billion and trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas |
| bcm | Billion cubic metres |
| BF-BOF | Blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace route |
| CBAM | The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism |
| CEMAC | Central African Economic and Monetary Community |
| CO₂e | Carbon dioxide equivalent |
| FCFA | CFA franc of Central Africa (XAF), pegged at 655.957 per euro |
| FID | Final investment decision |
| GJ, PJ | Gigajoule, petajoule (one million GJ) |
| GWh, TWh | Gigawatt-hour, terawatt-hour |
| HV, MV, LV | High, medium and low voltage |
| IEA | International Energy Agency |
| IFC | International Finance Corporation |
| IRENA | International Renewable Energy Agency |
| KPDC | Kribi Power Development Corporation, owner of the Kribi gas-fired plant |
| KPIZ | Kribi Port Industrial Zone, managed by KPIZ S.A. |
| kV | Kilovolt |
| MINEE | Ministère de l’Eau et de l’Énergie, the Ministry of Water and Energy |
| MINEPAT | Ministère de l’Économie, de la Planification et de l’Aménagement du Territoire |
| Mscf, MMscf/d | Thousand standard cubic feet; million standard cubic feet per day |
| Mtpa | Million tonnes per annum |
| MVA, MW | Megavolt-ampere (apparent power), megawatt (active power) |
| Nm3 | Normal cubic metre |
| OSM | OpenStreetMap |
| PAK | Port Autonome de Kribi, the Kribi port authority |
| PVGIS | Photovoltaic Geographical Information System of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre |
| RC-1 | Cameroon Steel’s reference configuration for the steel complex at Mboro |
| RIS, RIN | Southern and Northern Interconnected Grids (Réseau Interconnecté Sud, Nord) |
| SNH | Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures, the national hydrocarbons company |
| SONATREL | Société Nationale de Transport de l’Électricité, the transmission company |
| STPP | Special tax on petroleum products |
| THD | Total harmonic distortion |
| UIE | International Union for Electricity Applications |
| US$ | United States dollar |
Source: Cameroon Steel.
Cite this chapter
Cameroon Steel (2026). Cameroon’s hydro grid can power low-carbon steel if large users get firm supply, clear tariffs and gas. White paper 05, annex B: Glossary of terms and abbreviations. CS-WP-05. https://www.cameroon-steel.com/en/library/energy-for-industry/annex-glossary/
Source