Power Substations

Substations are rooms containing advanced grid management machinery. While optional, Engineering can set them up to give the station power grid higher redundancy and safety. Common practice is setting main grid to large power output (via Engine SMES or Solars), and then using substations to ration this power to specific sections of the station.

Substations can be very useful when preventing potentially dangerous power grid situations from happening. Regulating amount of power to each deck allows you to better ration power, which is espicially useful when running on solar arrays. If set up they also block power surges caused by malfunctioning machinery, such as short-circuiting SMES. Therefore it is recommended to set them up. Since SMESs are connected to the RCON system, this setup may be done remotely. Alternatively, the AI may do this.

Each deck has its own substation.

• Deck A: Located near the center of the ship, where the four Solar SMESes merge their power inputs and pass it into Deck B.
• Deck B: Connects to the AI power supply directly, with other outputs taking lower priority. Takes incoming power from Deck A and Deck C. Is generally powered by the solars and the TEG, combining emergency heat dissipation with power generation to keep the ship combat-capable.
• Deck C: Connects directly to the SMES Core on Deck D. with conduits to B and D. Is otherwise powered by the Supermatter Engine, which is safe in theory. In practice, it's liable to delaminate unless the scientists keep an eye on it. Engineers usually know how to configure it properly, but the Scientists always insist they can optimize better…
• Deck D: Contains the SMES Core which is the nerve center of the ship's power supply, as well as connections to Deck E and a conduit to Deck C. Home of one power station with two separate ways to annihilate your ship unexpectedly, although it can be configured to use both engines at once if you can get hold of another particle accelerator and rearrange some nonessential furnishings. When the Engineers and Scientists are all on their game, the Energy Transmission Laser becomes a Kill Laser against unshielded ships.
• Deck E: Has only a few main SMESes, mostly relies on APCs to maintain room power. Has a power conduit leading down to Deck F, and is noted as 'most likely point of connection failure' when Deck F goes dark … again. Fortunately, this area is usually charging once the ship engines are on.
• Deck F: A small substation to meet the deck's meager needs, this connects up to Deck E, and is rife for sabotage. The incinerator provides an unexpected power supply in emergencies, and is accessible by the Janitor, of all people.

Each substation contains following advanced electrical machinery

The breaker box acts as isolation bridge between two power grids. It may be toggled either via RCON, or by clicking it manually. When enabled it bridges cables connected to it, effectively bypassing the substation. All breakers are enabled by default, until substations are set up.

The SMES unit acts both as regulator and storage. When set up this SMES takes power from the master (red) power network, and sends it to the department subgrid. Its input/output values may be set, allowing you to precisely ration the amount of power for that department.

We have two theoretical situations, in which setup steps (and espicially values) will vary significantly:

If engine is running properly, amounts of power are sufficient to properly charge the substations. Follow each of following steps for all substations you wish to set up:

• Either gain access to RCON console, or enter the substation room.
• Adjust SMES settings to following values: Input 250 kW - Auto. Output 200 kW - ONLINE.
• Disable the relevant breaker box.
• Optional: Use power monitoring console to verify that subgrid has power. Alternatively check if the SMES output value is above 0W.

If the engine is not operational, and thus power is limited, setup is slightly more complicated. If power is very low, you may disable the breakers on specific decks to cut them off completely. Depending on available power doing this to cut power to low priority areas (Hangar for example) may help drop the load a bit.

Then proceed with setup steps as outlined above, but adjust the settings accordingly. Usually you want the SMES to be inputting at least a little more than outputting. For example, if Bridge Deck grid is using 130kW, setting it's SMES to 150kW input (Auto) and 150kW output (Online) should suffice. However, please note that the SMES will charge very slowly, and the subgrid will be prone to power outages, for example when someone uses a high-powered recharger.

If combined input of all SMESes in the grid exceeds available power, the SMESes will input partially, dividing available charge evenly by percentage.

While many engineers see substations as “Fancy battery rooms”, they open significantly more possibilities than power storage. You may use substations to limit amount of power to specific section of the station, or even reroute power from one substation to another! Remember that power monitoring program, along with RCON system, is very powerful tool that allows you to manage the station's power grid from comfort of your chair.

Each of the wire grids around the station are color coded. Knowing what each color represents will assist with grid maintenance and problem solving with grid issues.

Yellow: Power Sources - These are used as connection between power sources (Solar panels, or Engine radiation collectors, for example) and their primary SMES unit(s).

Cyan: Support Sub Grids - Few locations contain these. While not subgrids on their own, these usually mean the area is powered by separate SMES unit (Atmospherics, AI Section, Engine, Telecommunications), probably due to high power demands or critical nature of those systems.

Red: Master - Main power network which runs all around the ship and connects substations to power sources.

Green: Sub Grids - Each deck of the ship contains separate subgrid. They connect APCs to substations.

Substations also offer multiple interesting options for antagonists. If you decide to use a powersink, properly set up substations may inhibit its efficiency significantly. However, substations may also be used as an efficient weapon. SMES units may be hacked, allowing you to disable RCON and AI control, among other interesting options (TIP: Cutting the grounding wire will overload-discharge the SMES into its output, slowly frying the connected APCs if not fixed quickly). If your goal is destructive, detonating explosives in substations may efficiently cripple power to one section of the ship.