Power grid basics

Without power no pump, no printer and no chip will run. The power grid in Stationeers is simple, but it has a few rules you need to know – otherwise cables burn out or everything shuts down at once.

What a network is#

All cables that are connected to each other form one network. Devices hang on it through their connections. Every tick, each network adds up what the generators can deliver and what the consumers need.

The game calculates in ticks of 0.5 seconds and shows the values as watts. The figures on the device pages (for example “200 W” for the volume pump) are the base draw – printers and climate devices pull more while working.

Cables and their limits#

What gets compared is the flow in the network: the smaller of what the generators can deliver and what the consumers need. If that flow exceeds the limit of the weakest cable, one part breaks – at most one per tick, and which one is random.

Fuses exist for 1 kW, 5 kW, 50 kW, 100 kW and 500 kW, for example the Fuse (5kW). A fuse is a deliberately weak part: it trips first and takes the cable piece it sits on with it. That is cheaper than a burnt cable somewhere inside a wall.

When there is not enough power#

A network is only supplied when the possible generation is greater than the demand – exactly equal already counts as too little. If it is too little, all normal consumers switch off, not just one. Only batteries, transformers and area power controllers stay on.

That is why a base suddenly goes dark as soon as one more device is added.

Generators#

• Solar Panel: rated 500 W, but that is not a hard limit. In full sun it delivers about 510 W on Mars and about 770 W on the Moon. It can be tracked using Horizontal and Vertical.
• Generator (Solid Fuel): 20,000 W as long as there is fuel in its input slot.
• More generators are listed in the Devices category.

Storage and control#

• Station Battery: stores 3,600,000 J, has one power input, one power output and a data port. Mode gives the charge level from 0 (empty) to 6 (full), Ratio the fraction.
• Station Battery (Large): about 9,000,000 J.
• Transformer (Large): limits what flows from input to output – Setting sets the power, at most 50,000 W.
• Area Power Control: separates a sub-network and buffers it with a battery cell in its own slot.

A worked example#

A small base with a Volume Pump (200 W), an Active Vent (100 W), an IC Housing (50 W) and a Gas Sensor (1 W) needs 351 W at base load.

• One solar panel (about 510 W on Mars in full sun) only covers that around noon. At night it delivers nothing.
• With two panels there is a surplus during the day that charges a battery for the night.
• A normal cable (5,000 W) is more than enough for this load.

IC10: backup power by battery level#

This program switches a solid fuel generator on when the batteries drop below 20 % and off again once they are above 90 %. The devices are named with the labeller and addressed by name:

# Backup power: switch generator by battery level
define BATTERY -400115994      # Station Battery (StructureBattery)
define GEN 813146305           # Generator (StructureSolidFuelGenerator)
define NBATT HASH("Base Battery")    # name of the battery/batteries
define NGEN HASH("Backup Gen")       # name of the generator
define ON_AT 0.2               # switch on below 20 % charge
define OFF_AT 0.9              # switch off above 90 % charge
alias level r0
alias run r1
alias low r2
alias high r3

start:
yield
lbn level BATTERY NBATT Ratio 0
bnan level start               # no battery with this name
slt low level ON_AT
sgt high level OFF_AT
select run low 1 run           # below 20 %: switch on
select run high 0 run          # above 90 %: switch off
sbn GEN NGEN On run
j start

Between 20 and 90 % the last state is kept – so the generator does not keep starting and stopping. More about lbn, sbn and batch mode 0 in IC10: control a device by name.

Further reading#

• Work through power and cables: Power calculator
• Plan solar arrays: Solar calculator