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electrical power
Most machines in technic are electrically powered. To operate them it is necessary to construct an electrical power network. The network links together power generators and power-consuming machines, connecting them using power cables.
There are three tiers of electrical networking: low voltage (LV), medium voltage (MV), and high voltage (HV). Each network must operate at a single voltage, and most electrical items are specific to a single voltage. Generally, the machines of higher tiers are more powerful, but consume more energy and are more expensive to build, than machines of lower tiers. It is normal to build networks of all three tiers, in ascending order as one progresses through the game, but it is not strictly necessary to do this. Building HV equipment requires some parts that can only be manufactured using electrical machines, either LV or MV, so it is not possible to build an HV network first, but it is possible to skip either LV or MV on the way to HV.
Each voltage has its own cable type, with distinctive insulation. Cable segments connect to each other and to compatible machines automatically. Incompatible electrical items don't connect. All non-cable electrical items must be connected via cable: they don't connect directly to each other. Most electrical items can connect to cables in any direction, but there are a couple of important exceptions noted below.
To be useful, an electrical network must connect at least one power generator to at least one power-consuming machine. In addition to these items, the network must have a "switching station" in order to operate: no energy will flow without one. Unlike most electrical items, the switching station is not voltage-specific: the same item will manage a network of any tier. However, also unlike most electrical items, it is picky about the direction in which it is connected to the cable: the cable must be directly below the switching station.
Hovering over a network's switching station will show the aggregate energy supply and demand, which is useful for troubleshooting. Electrical energy is measured in "EU", and power (energy flow) in EU per second (EU/s). Energy is shifted around a network instantaneously once per second.
In a simple network with only generators and consumers, if total demand exceeds total supply then no energy will flow, the machines will do nothing, and the generators' output will be lost. To handle this situation, it is recommended to add a battery box to the network. A battery box will store generated energy, and when enough has been stored to run the consumers for one second it will deliver it to the consumers, letting them run part-time. It also stores spare energy when supply exceeds demand, to let consumers run full-time when their demand occasionally peaks above the supply. More battery boxes can be added to cope with larger periods of mismatched supply and demand, such as those resulting from using solar generators (which only produce energy in the daytime).
When there are electrical networks of multiple tiers, it can be appealing to generate energy on one tier and transfer it to another. The most direct way to do this is with the "supply converter", which can be directly wired into two networks. It is another tier-independent item, and also particular about the direction of cable connections: it must have the cable of one network directly above, and the cable of another network directly below. The supply converter demands 10000 EU/s from the network above, and when this network gives it power it supplies 9000 EU/s to the network below. Thus it is only 90% efficient, unlike most of the electrical system which is 100% efficient in moving energy around. To transfer more than 10000 EU/s between networks, connect multiple supply converters in parallel.