The global power balance between different input power and sink/loss channels is important for understanding of tokamak physics, particularly for various scaling laws. The power balance is measured easily during stationary discharge phases because the terms for both magnetic field energy and plasma thermal energy build-up can be neglected.
However, many important events in tokamak plasmas occur during non-stationary phases of the discharge. This article describes, quantifies and discusses the terms of the global power balance, including time dependent parts, and exemplifies them on the typical ohmic discharge of the COMPASS tokamak.