A somewhat different nuclear setup - could use some help

[Case]

Hey mates.

I played around with a nuclear setup that can coop with solar energy and came to this solution: (there are still some question - see at the end of this post)

Base Layout:

Base Overview.jpg (376.99 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

The idea was to use the internal heat storage in the heat pipes as buffer - compared to steam tanks. Also the steam turbines should only work when the network has demand for energy. In the pictures below you can see that every 2 turbine blocks are a seperate energy network and will operate one after another while the demand for energy grows. This works like a level gauge and you can with one look at it see how your reactor is performing (the no energy warnings will come up if the turbines have no demand).
Now I would like to have solar panels for the day and the heat pipes can buffer the heat for the night. Thats what the separate section above the base setup is for. Right now it works very well but I would like to figure out the numbers for the amount of needed turbines - a little help would be very appreciated. What I have so far is roughly 8800 solar panels to 92 turbines - aka 533MW for the day and the night.

but lets see the setup in detail first:

Demand based Layout - not at full turbine capacity just to show how I would use it

Demand Base Working Overview.jpg (351.73 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

Edit: maybe I should describe how it works a bit:

System description

It works in the following way. First - day solar panels satisfy the energy need (does not need to be full - but it has to be above 160MW .. the accumulators are 100% charged so no energy comes form the reactor. At this time the heat pipes buffer the still coming energy from the reactors (one heat pipe can store ~10MJ - this includes heater and reactors as well). Now the night comes. Solar energy drops and the first accumulator row (above the reactors) will be discharged. If the discharge level falls below 100% the turbines at the row of the accumulator start to produce energy with max capacity 5.8MW if this satisfies the current energy demand the accumulator will be charged again (this time from the turbines) and if it is at 100% again the turbines switch off (this lead to 'flickering' around the current energy need). Now lets say the energy need can not be satisfied by the first row of turbines .. the accumulator still gets discharged even when the turbines run at max .. when the accumulator falls below 90% the next row will be switched on and now the system works like described before .. turbines start to run .. and so on until it the last row. This means if you look at your turbines you can see how your energy need is just by looking at the rows of turbines that are not displayed with a no energy warning sign. Also all turbines run at max speed - when they are on they run at max capacity (this means it satisfies the ratios by demand). I would like to enhance it whit the preheated water solution from Metusa because I think it would fit in very nicely - demand based is the key here. . have fun

Wire setup - detail

Wire Setup Extended.jpg (253.41 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

I have to say it is quite the hassle to set this thing up because you can not blueprint energy wires and it has to be set up by hand whenever you change or adjust something. Also pay attention to the energy wire layout between the switches and rows .. I think it could be done a little bit easier wiht some additional combinators but I would not mess with it at this state - feel free to patch in if you have an idea how to set this up better.

Switch one

Switch 1 Setup.jpg (221.61 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

Switch 2

Switch 2 Setup.jpg (279.58 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

And just for funsies it is quite pleasing on the map view:

Map view

OCD friendly map display.jpg (35.3 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

Piping - nothing fancy here

Piping.jpg (368.02 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

Example - night usage after solar day

Energy Overview Full Load.jpg (523.98 KiB) Viewed 2497 times

Well I hope you find it a bit interesting and hopefully have some ideas how to make it better.



Questions: One question would be to figure out the numbers between solar day and night nuclear ratios. Another question what would be a good border for the accumulator in regard to decide when to load a new fuel charge into the reactor - I played with some sort of estimations from the accumulator charge level and counted it to 8MJ (one charge) but it was not very satisfying. Also the setup is very precise to the energy need and so it 'flickers' off and on tick wise around the max energy demand - maybe some sort of hysteresis is needed but I'm not sure about this.

Well anyway take care...

Edit forgot the blueprint string: But be aware that you can not use it right after placing because the energy wires will all be messed up .. after placing remove all copper wires (can be done from far - using the options key for removing wires) after that you would need to rewire all copper wires by hand like shown in the above image. (be warned it is quite the struggle )

Blueprint

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[Aeternus]

Have you tested how this plant handles significant load spikes? Say, a jump from 200mw to 500mw in one gulp - as if a bunch of biters are hitting a big wall of lasers? Such a chained switch based design looks good in theory, but in practise it can be slow to respond to demand. Also, once you reach the point where the load is met, the switch responsible will oscillate open and closed rapidly.

[Case]

It reacts in an instant .. My whole factory works with energy spikes because I switch off and on fully beconed sections on demand. You can adjust the response by setting the border for Switch 2 ..with A = 99% as setting the whole setup jumps to full load in no time. It works because all turbines have 199 steam in it when they sitch off and can produce energy the tick they get a demand. Like I said it is not a theory craft I use it in my current factory and I constantly try to make it better. The oscillation is something I still work on .. see the question section in my top post. It also depends on the Switch 2 setting. At A=99% it is almost not existent and the Satisfaction - Production bars are both green and at 100%. (but it is still there of course and something I would like to address when I have an idea how to tackle this problem).

Maybe I should make a short video about it .. it would describe and show what it does a bit better. Maybe when I find the time.

Edit: just some numbers:
for the response time - with a setting off 99% for switch 2: 1% of 300kw is 3kw - one turbine can satisfy 5800kw so 3kw are satisfied in 0.0005 seconds which is below one tick (it still needs one tick to respond though). This means my current setup 32rows (aka 128 turbines) jumps from 0 to all turbines on in 32 ticks. It also means it can handle spikes up to 23.2MW within one tick (one row with 4 turbines a 5.8Mw = 23.2MW)