What's expected with energy cut? (4)
I believe the answer is:
pare
'cut?' is the definition.
(I know that pare is a is a more specific form of the action cut)
'what's expected with energy' is the wordplay.
'what's expected' becomes 'par' (par is the expected or typical standard).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'energy' becomes 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mc2).
'par'+'e'='PARE'
(Other definitions for pare that I've seen before include "Trim off in layers" , "Trim by cutting" , "Strip the skin from" , "Cut down gradually" , "Trim by slicing" .)