For a cell reaction characterized by the chemical equation:
at constant temperature and pressure, the thermodynamic voltage (minimum voltage required to drive the reaction) is given by the Nernst equation:
where  is the Gibbs energy and F is the Faraday constant. The standard thermodynamic voltage (i.e. at standard temperature and pressure) is given by:
and the Nernst equation can be used to calculate the standard potential at other conditions.
The cell reaction is generally endothermic: i.e. it will extract heat from its environment. The Gibbs energy calculation generally assumes an infinite thermal reservoir to maintain a constant temperature, but in a practical case, the reaction will cool the electrode interface and slow the reaction occurring there.
If the cell voltage is increased above the thermodynamic voltage, the product of that voltage and the current will generate heat, and if the voltage is such that the heat generated matches the heat required by the reaction to maintain a constant temperature, that voltage is called the "thermoneutral voltage". The rate of delivery of heat is equal to  where T is the temperature (the standard temperature, in this case) and dS/dt is the rate of entropy production in the cell. At the thermoneutral voltage, this rate will be zero, which indicates that the thermoneutral voltage may be calculated from the enthalpy.