Electricity

Generating Electricity is key to almost all progress within Nuclear Tech Mod. From the simple self-contained wood-burning generator, all the way to the powerful custom multiblock design of the PWR, electricity generation is deeply tied to progression within the mod. You'll find that as you construct more powerful machines, their increase in hunger for power will require you to create better power generation systems, and more effective power distribution networks.

Electricity itself is measured in units of $\mathrm {HE}$. Power consumption and generation is measured in $\mathrm {HE/s}$ (HE per second) or in $\mathrm {HE/t}$ (HE per game tick). This page will describe power over seconds for simplicity, you can divide any numbers given by 20 (the default tickrate) to get the power produced per tick.

Generation

Electricity is produced by a vast array of power generating machines. Your first source of power is likely to be either the simple wood-burning generator, or a combination of a solid fuel heat source such as a heating oven, with a Stirling engine on top.

Note that for fluid burning/combusting, each fluid provides its own values for heat or power generation, these values can be found on the respective fluid pages. We will note the efficiency of conversion and the burn rate, and the power generated for the default fuel of the generator.

For power generation based on steam, steam consumes 200 TU of energy from its heat source per mB (millibucket), and will convert that into HE when sent through a turbine based on the turbines efficiency with a conversion of 100TU -> % efficiency HE. 85% efficiency means that 100TU becomes 85HE

Early game power generation

Machine	Fuel source	Power generated	Notes
Wood-Burning Generator	Solid fuels	2kHE/s	Has an efficiency bonus to logs and wood
	Fluids Wood Oil	50% TU -> HE 40mB/s 2.2kHE/s	Burns slowly and has a 50% minimum efficiency penalty
Stirling Engine	Heater Firebox	50% TU -> HE 2kHE/s	Has a heat capacity of 300TU, exceeding this heat capacity will damage the machine, power produced is based on using a firebox with coal, which won't exceed this cap. A heavy variant is available that has a higher heat capacity of 1,500TU. A creative only variant is also available with no maximum heat capacity and 100% efficiency, allowing for testing theoretical zero-loss power generation.
Steam Engine	Steam	85% efficiency 3.4kHE/s	Has the same efficiency as a steam turbine, but can be constructed before you can produce polymer which requires petroleum processing. Values are based on producing steam with the same firebox used for the Stirling engine.

Once you have a basic grasp of power consumption, you'll find yourself building more complex power generating machines, with your likely next step to be generators that combust petroleum fuels like the diesel generator.

Consumption

Early on, you'll find that most machines consume a leisurely amount of power, and can be run on your basic power production, supplemented by a few energy storage blocks either crafted or looted from structures.

Early game power consumption

Machine	Power consumed	Notes
Assembly Machine	2kHE/s	Used to craft a lot of machines in the mod, and is likely your first power consumer.
Chemical Plant	2kHE/s	Used to craft a fair few chemicals and blocks like Concrete.
Shredder	100HE/s	Yields more metals per ore, and can recycle useless materials into burnable scrap.
Electric Furnace	1kHE/s	A faster furnace that uses electricity rather than solid fuels.
Electric Press	2kHE/s	An electric version of the burner press, doesn't require spool-up time.

However, some machines are soft-gated behind effective power generation, in order to require you to investigate more effective power production. This starts you on your slow rise to nuclear power production. Likely, your first machine to truly strain your early game power generation will be the arc welder, which can consume 10kHE/s just for welding steel plates together, 5MHE/s for welding tungsten plates, and up to a whopping 400GHE/s for welding osmiridium plates.

Storage

Energy Storage Blocks

See: Energy Storage Block

Energy storage blocks act as batteries for your network, and can be configured with four different modes:

• Input: The default mode, the block will receive power and store it
• Buffer: The block will act as a buffer, storing excess energy and outputting it whenever any machine requires it
• Output: The block will output power from its storage, without replenishing it
• Disabled: The block will do nothing but hold charge

Energy storage blocks have an alternate mode that can be switched to by applying redstone power, this has the same mode available.

Finally, energy storage blocks also have a priority option, this changes the order in which energy storage blocks are filled when power is available, filling up the higher priority storage blocks before the low priority ones. High priority blocks will receive power before machines do.

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  Energy Storage Block

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  Li-Ion Energy Storage Block

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  Schrabidium Energy Storage Block

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  Spark Energy Storage Block

Capacitors

See: Capacitors

Capacitors are similar to energy storage blocks in that they can store power, but they also act as diodes, only allowing power to flow in one direction through them, while holding onto any excess power that doesn't flow into any energy storage blocks or machines. This makes them very handy in applications where certain machines must not lose power, such as the magnets of a fusion reactor. By placing a capacitor that receives energy from the network, and outputs power to the target machine, the buffer will only discharge when that machine requires it, and never returns it back to the network where other machines may over consume and run it dry.

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  Copper Capacitor

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  Golden Capacitor

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  Niobium Capacitor

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  Tantalium Capacitor

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  Schrabidate Capacitor

Distribution

Unless you're content with powering every machine individually, losing efficiency and time, you'll likely want to be able to deliver the electrical output of one machine to many others in your factories. This is where your electrical networking comes in handy. Electricity is transmitted immediately through cables, and can even be transmitted over unloaded chunks, as long as the source and the destination are both loaded.

Block based transmission

See: Red Copper Cable

The most basic block for transmission is the red copper cable, which comes in two varieties, a block form and a skinnier cable form. The block form also has a paintable version which can help it blend into your designs better.

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  Red Copper Cable

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  Red Copper Cable (Classic)

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  Coated Red Copper Cable

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  Paintable Red Copper Cable

Node based transmission

See: Electricity Pylons & Connectors

For longer and neater power transmission, various node-like power distribution blocks exist. All of these nodes require the cable drum item to be connected together, which is created in a crafting table like so:

The first two power distribution node blocks can be trivially connected together with no substations or transformers required, and are great for short range distribution and for neater designs than the regular blocks. These are the electricity connector, and the electricity pylon.

For greater distances, and improved aesthetics, two more distribution nodes are available, but require transformers and substations to step up/down the voltage that the line carries, increasing the upfront cost of using these node types. These include the medium electricity pylon (in both wooden and steel variants), and the large pylons, which can be spaced a whopping 100 blocks apart.

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  Electricity Connector (10m)

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  Electricity Pylon (25m)

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  Medium Wooden Electricity Pylon (45m)

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  Medium Steel Electricity Pylon (45m)

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  Medium Wooden Electricity Pylon with Transformer (45m)

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  Medium Steel Electricity Pylon with Transformer (45m)

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  Large Electricity Pylon (100m)

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  Substation (20m)

Diodes

Diodes can be used to separate network segments and control electrical consumption, preventing any given machine from over-consuming and drying out the network. The diode restricts power to only flow in one direction through it, and can be configured with various tools:

• Screwdriver: Increases throughput
• Hand Drill: Decreases throughput
• Defuser: Change priority, higher priority networks receive power before others

A diode is created in a crafting table with the following recipe: