an electrical component has a plurality of paired contacts with spaced inner contact sections bridged by a fuse element . the paired contacts have outer contact sections enabling mounting to a circuit panel to complete circuit paths thereon . the component can be used as a shunt for programming the circuit panel by programming the component prior to in - service use of the panel , by the method of deliberately opening the respective fuse element between one or more selected pairs of contacts by an electrical programming current thereon , leaving other fuse elements intact for in - service path connection of their respective circuit paths . the component can be surface mountable and can have dip configuration .