Power Storage

Experimental

The Power Storage is a mid-game building used for buffering electrical energy. Each can store up to 100 MWh, or 100 MW for 1 hour. As it allows 2 power connections, multiple Power Storages can be daisy-chained to store large amounts of energy.

Usage
When connected to a power grid that is supplied by generators other than Biomass Burners, it will charge using the excess generated power, up to a rate of 100 MW each. Therefore, it will take at least an hour in real-time to fully charge an empty Power Storage, or longer if the spare power is less than to satisfy all Power Storages on the grid (Power Storages that are not fully charged will split the spare power, reducing their charge rate to the available spare power divided by the number of partially charged Power Storages). Charging Power Storage does not add to the grid power consumption or max consumption figures, nor does it diminish capacity since it will slow or stop charging if there are other demands for the available power.

As long as there is stored charge in the Power Storage and there is a power shortage (consumption exceeding production), all Power Storages will discharge to satisfy the difference, powering up instantly. There is no limit on the discharge rate; it will exactly match the power deficiency. This allows the engineer to quickly react to restore the power situation, whether to increase power production or to install a Power Switch. Once all the stored energy has been discharged and the power is still insufficient, the power grid will trip.

There are two meters in the Power Storage interface. The left meter is the individual Power Storage charge level. The right meter is the collective charge level of all Power Storage attached to the grid.

Connecting additional Power Storages will not impact the individual charge level of other Power Storages, but will reduce the charge level of the system on the right meter. This will also increase the time remaining until full charge. Power Storages cannot charge each other.

Charge indicator
Power Storage lacks an Indicator Light, instead, a charge indicator bar is displayed on the structure, in the power graph and in the Power Storage UI, showing how much energy is stored. It is colored as follows: The power graph and Power Storage UI displays time to fully charge/discharge at the current power input/drain.
 * Blue – Charging
 * Orange – Discharging (the upper part of the building rises and begins to spin)
 * Grey – Idle (either full capacity or there is no power to charge with nor discharge)

The Power Storage allows the buffering of fluctuating power generation (Geothermal Generators) and consumption (Particle Accelerators and/or a factory not running at peak efficiency).

Tips

 * As a rule of thumb, measure the power production (in GW) then multiply that number by 5. Example:
 * If power production capacity is 5 GW, then build 25 Power Storages.
 * If power production is 1 TW (1000 GW), then build 5000 Power Storages.
 * This is based on the fact that both Geothermal Generators and Particle Accelerators have power fluctuating around 50% around their average value.
 * Power can fluctuate up to 50 % of the average value. Assuming the worst case scenario, the power production is solely from Geothermal Generators and all the production buildings are only Particle Accelerators. If power production is 5 GW, half of it is 2.5 GW (maximum fluctuate valve). That is the maximum excess power. To avoid this going to waste, capture all the excess power with Power Storages. As each of them can only charged up to maximum rate of 100 MW, 2.5 GW of excess would require:
 * 2.5 GW = 2500 MW
 * 2500 MW / 100 MW = 25
 * That is, 25 Power storages at most.

History

 * Patch 0.4.0.0: Introduced