· build · 2 min read
Satisfactory power grid: when starving is a power problem
A machine on a dead Satisfactory power grid has a full input and an empty output, exactly like a starving one. Check the grid first.
Here is a trap we walked into while building Factory Board. A machine whose power grid has died looks exactly like a machine that is starving.
Why they look the same
A machine with no power stops drawing from its input, so the input buffer fills up. It makes nothing, so the output buffer stays empty. Full input, empty output, low uptime. That is the shape of a line waiting for parts, and a tool reading the buffers alone would send you to build more miners for a line that needs a generator.
Satisfactory also does not share power between grids. A generator feeds only what it is wired to. So one grid can brown out while another sits half idle, and a single power total for the whole base hides it: the average looks fine while one corner of the factory is dark.
What the save knows
Your save records each power circuit and every building on it. For each one it stores what the building asks for and what a generator can give right now. A generator with no fuel left gives nothing, and the save already counts it that way.
What the save does not store is a tripped fuse. There is no flag for it. So Factory Board does not claim to have read one. It adds up demand and capacity per grid and compares the two numbers.
Power first, buffers second
That comparison is the one check the board makes before it reads any buffer. Everything else it says is read from levels: how much is waiting, how much is left. This one is two numbers the save states outright, so it goes first, and it stops the false "starving" before it is printed.
When a grid is short, the board says how short, in megawatts, and what to do: add at least that much generation to that grid, or refuel the generators it already has. A machine on no grid at all gets "Not wired to a power grid", which is a different fix.
It also groups by cause. Ten slow lines on one overloaded grid are one problem, listed once, so the second and third things worth fixing still make the top of the page.
The demo base has a second grid with no generation on it, if you want to see the reading before you load your own save.
Check your grids
Drop your save on the page. The Overview has a Power grids panel with each grid's draw against what is built, and nothing leaves your browser.
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