Skip Navigation

Units and abbreviations

Energy units

Units are types of measurements. We measure all sorts of things in different units. For example distances, areas, volumes, heights, weights, mass, force, and energy.

Different types of energy are measured by different units:

  • Barrels, gallons or litres for petroleum
  • Cubic feet for natural gas
  • Tonnes for coal
  • Joules for energy

Because each unit is different, if we wanted to compare them against each other, we would have to find a link between them.

Electricity units

Electricity has 4 different types of unit. They are used to measure different things:

  • P = Power in watts
  • V = Voltage
  • I = Current in amps
  • R= Resistance in ohms

Abbreviations

Units of electricity can be a mouthful! So they are often shortened, or abbreviated, when you write them. Here are some examples:

  • kWh = kilowatt hours (that’s 1000 watts or 3.6million joules!)
  • MWh = megawatt hours (that’s 1000 kilowatts!)
  • GWh = gigawatt hours (that’s 1000 megawatts!)
  • TWh = terawatt hours (that’s 1000 gigawatts!)