About 40 % of world crude steel production takes place in an electric arc furnace. This share will continue to rise in the coming years. Due to this the development of electric steelmaking process becomes more important. Because of the increasing demand for sustainable and resource-saving steel production the developments in electric steel production are driven by energy and raw material efficiency and high productivity. This led to a number of different plant concepts, which are able to cope with this required demands. This thesis deals with the currently operating electric steelmaking processes and process developments as well as the state of the art of the electric arc furnace and a detailed description and rating of the different system concepts. In addition, a comparison of the various types of furnace technologies is represented, in relation to the plant technology and specific consumption- and production values. This comparison is based on a developed program for mass- and energy balances which is used for validation and verification of literature data.