Editing Guide to power (section)

== Power Queue ==

To maintain a stable source of power for station equipment, the station power grid follows a ''power queue'' where an electrical component with higher rank on the queue has its power draw from the grid evaluated before an electrical component with a lower priority. APCs are typically the lowest priority since they only draw power, while the power sources on the station are the highest priority since they only produce power.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
!colspan = 3|Power Queue
|+
! Rank !! Category !! Location
|-
|1 ||colspan = 2|All Power Sources
|-
|2 ||Power Sink ||You wish I told you
|-
|3 ||Solar SMES #1 ||Starboard Forward Solar Access
|-
|4 ||Solar SMES #2 ||Port Forward Solar Access
|-
|5 ||Solar SMES #3 ||Starboard Aft Solar Access
|-
|6 ||Solar SMES #4 ||Port Aft Solar Access
|-
|7 ||Singlo SMES #1 || SMES Room
|-
|8 ||Singlo SMES #2 || SMES Room
|-
|9 ||Singlo SMES #3 || SMES Room
|-
|?? ||Gas Turbine SMES || Incinerator Access (Gas Turbine Power Room)
|-
|10 ||Backups SMES #1 || Electrical Maintenance
|-
|11 ||Backups SMES #2 || Electrical Maintenance
|-
|12 ||colspan = 2|Station APC Queue
|+ 
!colspan = 3|Isolated SMESs
|-
|N/A ||Gravity SMES || Gravity Generator Chamber
|-
|N/A ||AI SMES || AI Chamber
|-
|N/A ||Mining Output SMES || Mining Outpost
|-
|N/A ||North Mining Output SMES || North Mining Outpost
|-
|N/A ||West Mining Output SMES || West Mining Outpost
|}

=== Power Output and the Power Queue ===

The most visible effect of the power queue is that if there is not enough output power available on the grid because a component with higher rank is requesting it, then a lower rank component will not charge. For example, if the Backup SMESs are set to input 200 kW each from the grid and the APCs draw 150 kW, but the grid only provides 250 kW total, then the second Backup SMES will not charge and around two out of three APCs will go unpowered as well.

=== SMES Charging and the Power Queue ===

[[File:SMES_Room_markup.png|thumb|right|400px|The three Singlo SMESs in the SMES Room.]]

Similarly, if a higher rank component has a high enough output level to handle the station's power draw, then the station will draw all of its power from the higher rank component instead of splitting the draw with a lower rank component. This phenomenon is seen often when the singlo is set up. An unaware Engineer will purposefully set all three Singlo SMESs to output at a very high value, say 100 kW, or 300 kW, thinking that this will be more than enough to power the station. While this is technically correct, it isn't advised since it slows down the time it takes until all SMESs are completely full.

An example is the best way to see this. The total power draw on the station is usually near 150 kW. This means the station will draw 100 kW from Singlo SMES #1, 50 kW from Singlo SMES #2, and 0 kW from Singlo SMES #3, resulting in different charging rates of the SMESs. Since SMESs have a capacity of 3,333,333 W (3.33 MW) and assuming an input level of 200 kW, it should take 33.3 cycles before all the SMESs are completely charged (9.99 MW total power stored).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Singlo SMES Non-optimized Charging for 150 kW Power Draw
!colspan = 4| !! colspan = 3|Charge at n Cycles
|+
! Singlo Cell !! Input Level !! Draw !! Charge Rate !! 17 !! 23 !! 34
|-
| SMES #1 || 200 kW || 100 kW || 100 kW || 1.70 MW || 2.30 MW || ''3.33 MW''
|-
| SMES #2 || 200 kW || 50 kW || 150 kW || 2.55 MW || ''3.33 MW'' || ''3.33 MW''
|-
| SMES #3 || 200 kW || 0 kW || 200 kW || ''3.33 MW'' || ''3.33 MW'' || ''3.33 MW''
|-
|'''Total''' || '''600 kW''' || '''150 kW''' || '''450 kW''' || '''7.58  MW''' || '''8.96 MW''' || '''''9.99 MW'''''
|}

A better way is to set output levels on Singlo SMESs #1 and #2 to a third of the total power draw of the station (here, 50 kW), while allowing the remainder (also, 50 kW) to draw from Singlo SMES #3, which would be set higher than that to account for power fluctuations. For the same case where the total draw was 150 kW, we would set SMES #1 and #2 to 50 kW and SMES #3 to something higher like 200 kW. This would have all three SMESs charged in 22.2 cycles -- 33% faster than the situation above.

[[File:SMES_Output_v_Cycles_to_Full_v01.png|thumb|400px|right|The optimal number of cycles it takes to charge the singlo SMESs is dependent on both not outputting too little, and not outputting too much.]]

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Singlo SMES Optimized Charging for 150 kW Power Draw
!colspan = 4| !! colspan = 2|Charge at n Cycles
|+
! Singlo Cell !! Input Level !! Draw !! Charge Rate !! 17 !! 23
|-
| SMES #1 || 200 kW || 50 kW || 150 kW || 2.55 MW || ''3.33 MW''
|-
| SMES #2 || 200 kW || 50 kW || 150 kW || 2.55 MW || ''3.33 MW''
|-
| SMES #3 || 200 kW || 50 kW || 150 kW || 2.55 MW || ''3.33 MW''
|-
|'''Total''' || '''600 kW''' || '''150 kW''' || '''450 kW''' || '''7.65  MW''' || '''''9.99 MW'''''
|}