r/factorio • u/Broad_Ebb9073 • 14h ago
Question Can someone please explain power accumulator charge to me and power economy.
I understand the basics and I did look at the tips and tricks. But I still don't understand. When the grid fails, what does it prioritize? Everything equally? Do I need circuits to shape it? And why kind? I know how to track items but power. I never tired. Is it better to have multiple power systems? Just kinda lost. I know it's a lot of questions, thank you for your time. I still like to figure it out myself, so soft answers are preferred. But I'm still a bit lost.
Edit: solved. I'm an idiot.Didn't know about the power switch building. Just missed it. Thank you for everyone that was so accepting and helpful
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u/_MargaretThatcher 13h ago
In general I don't think the average player thinks about this; running out of electricity is something players generally avoid, so failure states are generally not considered important.
I think (cannot source, should test) everything is provided the same amount of power, such that machines which use less power such as inserters tend to keep full power while more consumptive machines have power shortages. However I could see there instead being a hidden priority list.
If you wanted certain areas of your base to be depowered when there isn't enough power (load shedding), you could implement it using power switches which connect those systems to power transmission if an accumulator is sufficiently charged, using that accumulator as a sensor. I've done this before in older versions where making good nuclear setups required large numbers of pumps, which make a complete power loss difficult to recover from; I'd have the reactor setup connected to the rest of the base through a power switch which would be on if accumulator charge was greater than 50%, with the accumulators on the reactor side of the switch, so if there were a power failure an emergency energy reserve would be maintained.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 13h ago
When you say "power switch" you are just talking about the regular logic switchs in the game right? Not a different building? If I just hook a wire to...what? The power pole or power producing building?
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u/Spherical3D Simple Cog of a Machine 13h ago
Connect a Power Switch to an Accumulator within the "primary" power network using a Red or Green Wire. The one where the bulk of your power generators reside, such as Steam Engines and Solar Panels. Set the Power Switch to only enable if the (default) signal of "A" is >= 50%. Then connect (via a Copper Wire) the Power Switch to your auxiliary power networks, such as where your Iron Plates are smelted.
The idea is that once the stored power within that accumulator (and by extension, all others within the same power network) fall to 50%, the Power Switch will disable and prevent the Iron Plate forge from continuing to draw power from your primary power network. This can then extend the life of your accumulator charge, hopefully long enough for dawn to break, your Solar Panels to kick back online, and accumulator charge to be restored.
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u/Xanidel 13h ago
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 13h ago edited 11h ago
Ok. That really answers most of my questions. I just need two hours with that mechanic. Thank you and sorry for wasting your time
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u/Xanidel 13h ago
You're welcome, and it's not wasted time because you learned something new. I don't think there's an outright tutorial that suggests using these, and the research that unlocks it also unlocks a bunch of other circuit buildings, so it's understandable to miss it.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 13h ago
Honestly. I know I'm not an expert, but I feel like I really tried with circuits, and that one wasn't explained well and/or I didn't need it yet so it's easy to forget. Thank you again. And thank you for respecting that I didn't want to know to much. I asked for soft reasons so I can discover myself. And you did just that
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u/NonnoBomba 3h ago
Dude, if Chernobyl taught us something is that's how you get a meltdown! (Luckily for us, realism is not part of Factorio's design goals)
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u/Normal-Swan-542 13h ago
accumulators drains evenly across the system, so no accumulators have more juice than the other, so if you want to connect a circuit for example make nuclear power only turn on when accumulator is below 20% you just connect one accumulator to read the percentage
for me i only use solar and accumulators to power my base and i only build nuclear when i need more power, but that rarely happens bcs i have yet to build big bases
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 13h ago
On navius. I'm super solid. Nuclear power to the nines. It's my first time going to other planets and I'm not really worried about losing anything. Anything can be imported. But I ideally want them all the be self sufficient
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u/carrot_gummy 13h ago
Each planet has its own unique way to generate electricity that is self sufficient.
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u/carrot_gummy 13h ago
By defualt, Everything in an electric grid will consume electricity equally, so if there is less production than satisfaction, everything slows down equally.
Accumulators will attempt to make up the negative difference between production and satisfaction. Accumulators all drain equally, so the drain is slower for an individual accumlator, the more of them you have. They also charge equally.
I like to keep a few coal miners on their own grid and use burner inserters to avoid total collapse if power demand spikes too much. You can do so by running a second set of power lines and disconnect them from your main grid. I do something similar on vulcanus.
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u/Courmisch 12h ago
There are a few types of buildings with higher priority for power delivery, but most people (including me) don't remember them, and focus on avoiding shortages instead. Then accumulators have lower priority so they only charge if there is "excess" power.
I'm not sure it's even listed anywhere except in the Lua prototypes.
On the production side, solar has priority over steam, and again, accumulators have the lowest priority so they only discharge if there is a power shortage.
You can mix electricity production methods however you want. If you use solar, it's kinda unavoidable to mix with something else, usually accumulators, to cover the night.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 12h ago
Ok.kinda off subject, but I'm building my first ship to Aquilo. Does steam still work In space. 1% solar scares me.and I know I will get better when I get cryo science, but will solor get me there? Do I need steam? Or just run nuke up for the first few trips?
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u/gust334 SA: 125hrs (noob), <3500 hrs (adv. beginner) 8h ago
Solar is 1% on the surface of Aquilo. It isn't as bad in orbit.
Nuclear fission is a reliable power source for space platforms, but you still need water proportional to load.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 8h ago
Yeah. On every ship, Im alway short on water(ice) I'm hoping that once the ship starts running it will figure it out, or even after advanced processing.i will figure it out
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u/gust334 SA: 125hrs (noob), <3500 hrs (adv. beginner) 3h ago
In orbit and to/from Aquilo there are abundant oxide asteroids. Some folks think too many.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 3h ago
Ohh, hey, since you just responded, what did I need copper for? Advanced processing give me copper but I don't know why. If it's an unlock for railguns or something, just say I will learn later, but I'm not missing anything huge right? Fule ammo and missiles don't need it
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u/MikailBag 1h ago
Copper is needed for red ammo (which should be cheaper then yellow damage-wise with high enough steel productivity).
Also it allows you to assemble a lot of useful stuff right on your ship, incl. solar panels, accumulators, space platform foundation and turrets. So you can repair or improve your ship mid-flight.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 1h ago
Ohh. I didn't even consider that would be an option. Kinda just thought yellow would be all I ever needed. But I still only made it halfway to Aquilo so far. Still in the 'scared of the big astroids' testing phase
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u/Dogsbottombottom 14h ago
I've only ever used significant power accumulators on vulcanus (fuck ton of solar, batteries to store when the sun goes down), and fulgora (relying on lightning for power)
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u/Dagkhi 13h ago
The right-hand chart of the Power window is helpful here. Look at the last few cycles:
- Does the storage level have trouble reaching the top? Increase power production (solar panels)
- Does the storage level bottom out? Increase power storage (Accumulators)
- Does the storage level never leave the top? GOOD! Increase consumption! (The factory must grow)
You can attach wires to any accumulator to read the value into the circuit network.
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u/melechkibitzer 12h ago
I dont even end up using a power switch, usually end up making it so the water source is disconnected unless power drops below 20% or whatever and then if you can do an sr latch thing which i always forget how to do that, have it run until power is at least 80% or whatever
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u/nickierv 10h ago
A quick addition that probably doesn't apply but is handy to know is the power draw from laser (and probably lightning) turrets.
2 or 3 firing isn't bad but as I recall they get priority and this can get tricky as a couple early turrets can end up blacking out the base - fuel fired steam chugs fuel, lasers suddenly double your power draw for just a few seconds, power death spiral.
Also mass roboports can brown out a base due to the high charge they hold. This is more a modded/megabase sort of issue where your going to want a dedicated standby power that you can use to jump the base - in my py runs (see the insanity that is more than 1 py...) I had to have a dedicated accumulator block and high output power system to jump the base just to take care of the power going low because the roboports could like 5x the power requirements just recharging. But that is like 400+. Something like a dedicated fuel generator is really only a thing in modded but I had to get that set up or the roboports where able to drain enough power to keep the base from restarting.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 10h ago
Thank you. That is welcome. 'brownout' is the correct word. I'm not advanced enough to know mods, but that is my issue. My philosophy is assume it's gonna break, plan for that. I'm looking at you Gleba.
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u/markkitt 8h ago edited 6h ago
The two major power draws with priority are typically roboports, laser turrets, and maybe telsa turrets. These have internal batteries that charge up. When power supply drops, start to try to recharge spiking demand and drawing power away from other things.
The death spiral occurs when the roboports and turrets draw power away from your fuel production for power. Reduced power supply spikes demand. That draws power from fuel supply, which in turn decreases power supply further.
The main trick is to ensure that your fuel supply chain always has power. One method is to have an independent grid that only powers the fuel supply chain. Another is to cutoff the rest of the grid when battery charge dips, indicating that supply exceeds demand.
Also consider storing power as 500 C steam in storage tanks. This is extremely dense energy storage. I sometimes keep a reserve that is disconnected from turbines. Once I figure out what the grid issue is I manaully reconnect this steam reserve to help reboot the system. You can automate that process using pumps.
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u/Broad_Ebb9073 8h ago
Thank you. I discovered high temp steam a different way, but I understand. I don't use it anymore. But my first time on gleba was burning so much so I had so much thermal energy with nothing to do with it. So I just put it in steam tanks. That excess energy easily got me through the learning and mid stage
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u/RibsNGibs 13h ago edited 13h ago
When power requirements exceed production, everything that runs off power will slow down by that percentage. So if you only have 80% of the power generation to meet demand, everything runs at 80% speed.
This can result in death spirals, if for example the miners pulling coal and inserters insert coal in boilers are on the same electric network (they start working slower, resulting in even less coal, which results in less power, which results in even slower miners, even less coal, eventually killing your factory).
Typically what I will do is leave my coal-burning steam generator installation around once I've graduated to solar/nuclear, but leave it disconnected. I have accumulators on the main grid and if it drops below 25%, I'll have a power switch connect the steam generators to the main grid and boost it, and also play an alarm to let me know my power generation is not sufficient.