Introduction to CIRCUIT NETWORKS | Factorio Tutorial/Guide/How-to 

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From now on math teachers: if a student ever asks you "When am I ever gonna need this?" Use a Factorio example

For the power switches, I was using them to toggle on and off large science builds (1k spm) as I was scaling up. If my buffer had at least 2 train cars worth of packs waiting, I would cut the power to the builds to save power on the beacons since they draw power constantly.

I actually found a use for the power relay, believe it or not. I couldn't figure out how to do timers, so I used it to power my speaker while the train is empty. The speaker reads for the train being in the station, so for a second or two while the train is leaving, it is still active, and gets off a quick alert to get off the tracks, then deactivates again. I'm proud of my janky son.

When i started Factorio i thought it would be hard to get into circuits, then i remembered i studied informatics, who would guess that the school teached me how to play.

I’m getting better at the game with the help of your guides. I have a train network, I’ve launched 15 rockets and I’m scaling up to blue belts, and building modules. Circuits are definitely something I want to implement! Thanks for the guides man 🙏

I always use the power switch to enable or disable steam power when getting solar panels. Just link it to a accumulator and switch on when the power gets low. It switches much faster than doing it with the pumps.

The logistic chests can also be connected to the circuit network, not only to read their contents (like any other container), but also to configure the requests for requester and buffer chests

New drinking game: Take a shot every time Nilaus mentions people yelling at him.

You forgot to show the accumulator connected, probably the first circuit for everyone (turning steam on/off)

I like the power switch, because with that i can manage unimportant parts of my base to prevent or recover from a brown or blackout. Assume you are browning out on Coal power. because maybe your mines couldnt keep up by say 1 coal/s . Slowly your stockpile of coal gets used up by your boilers, and eventually even what is stored inside the boilers, then the steam engines dont have enough steam to make power so your power production reduces, if this continues at some point the miners will reduce their mining speed, and hence produce less coal, exasperating the lack of coal supply. but not just your miners are being slower, so are your inserters (unless you use burners, but they stinky, i still like to keep at least 1 burner inserter somewhere tho, so that it can automatically recover from a blackout, even without solar power) So even tho maybe youve thought ahead and built a stockpile in a few chests of coal that you just enable those inserters, but because you are in a heavy brownout now, (or even blackout, tbh) theyre not inserting onto the belt fast enough to get the boilers going at 100% again, which would give your miners all their mining speed again, (after adding enough that you technically wouldnt have a decifit anyways, cus you added more miners) so you are just slowly burning through your stockpile and you never really get out of your brownout. So to be able to recover from those relatively fine i will put a powerswitch between my boilers and the rest of my grid, where it includes my stockpile, that way, after adding more coal miners i can let the stockpile empty again until the belts are full before turning on the power to the rest of my factory again, that way its enough time for the miners to mine again and catch up with the full belt instead of flickering on and off. In the most basic way that is doable without any logic, just turn it on or off. but you can expand that backup poewr network to include your miners and then you have an automatic blackout prevention system by isolating until there is a stockpile >0. (or a full belt).

Much like mining drills, you can connect up a pumpjack too. However, when you have it monitor the patch, it only gets the info for the pool directly under it and not the entire stockpile in that small area. So you'll have to put 1 wire from each pumpjack to your power pole to get a full picture.

THANK YOU I had no idea what to do with these, been waiting for this one!

I used power switch to disconnect the reactors with large steam storage from the electric network, and connected them back again only if my solar power wasn't coping with the demand.

Power Switch Use Cases: 1) Solar Power - When want to use Solar Power and the Accumulators to power your base, and then switch on Coal/Steam when Accumulators can't sustain power requirements. (Gives a nice buffer for letting you know the Brown Outs are nigh. 2) Emergency Reserve - I keep a certain amount of accumulators full for emergencies, like when nuclear power has run out of fuel for some reason. I need power to get the process started, but if I try an just give the whole base that reserve power, it will never be enough 3) Nuclear Exclusive - Same as number 1, just with nuclear power. I usually go Nuclear > Solar > Fossil Fuel Thank you! You ARE the #1 Factorio resource as far as Google Search is concerned.

Regarding your power switch, I used it to turn Cracking plants in my oil processing on or off. Depending on how much light / heavy oil I have on hand, cracking plants get turned on and off. It saves a little bit of power because you don't have passive draw from the machines and beacons, but you could also just cut the feed with a pump. I could also imagine it being useful for something like a backup power plant by reading the charge of an acumulator, but once you have nuclear up and running power stops becoming an issue.

I used the power switch before I realized, that you can control pumps directly... I used it to shut down chemical plants for oil cracking once i had enough petroleum gas. Feeling stupid, I never ever used them since then.

The on/off switch would probably be more useful than using the water for connecting/disconnecting steam generated power from solar and accumulators based on those percentages.

I’d say the power switch is a matter of preference more than anything else. I still like having a more complex power failover system. While you can certainly just control coal belts / water pumps, I prefer having my failover power in “hot” standby. I attach it with an RS latch (so the power doesn’t “bounce” repeatedly between 19% and 20%) and when accumulators get too low, I’ll throw the power switch and get instant energy. ;) But it’s honestly a matter of a few seconds between instant power failover and a few meters of water flowing into failover power. :: shrug :: You’re right that the *real* answer is to always be ahead on your power generation. ;)

Accumulators can be read. It will output a signal from 0 - 100 percent based on its stored energy

14:43 I use this thing for far outposts. Usually I am too lazy to provide full array of defenses and infrastructure for them and end up with following: solar arrays + accumulator sections powering mining and laser turrets. When accumulators start to drain below certain point, i shut down the power to miners, redirecting remaining electricity to laser turrets. It allows to keep solar panels to a necessary minimum, thus redusing the size of outpost, and territory you need to protect. I use philosophy, that every outpost must be 100% self sufficient.

Great, now i know ho to use them im a basic level, now i have to find productive ways for it

I'm still waiting for a solar panel master class for the city block array, along with a solar hub. (Cyclops from Twitch)

I use power switches in every play-through. 1. For enabling steam power only when my accumulator banks are low (in conjunction with a RS-Latch), and two for isolating my science producing area so if I ever run out of power (always happens at some point), I can fully / instantly shut down science to reduce demand and keep power flowing to turrets, my mall, etc.

This is a great introduction for the basic mechanics. During your explanations I already had tons of ideas I would like to try out: e.g. trigger filter inserters when certain resource ratios in a box are met, switch production modules on or off (too much iron ore? Switch on that extra steel girder plant, save power otherwise). Great intro, thanks!

I'm on my first playthrough, and I actually have a secondary power network with just a coal mine and some steam generators on it, I only connect it when the main network can't meet demand. I have demand spikes when I build things out with drones, and the main network runs on cracked oil. I need to consume all the oil, otherwise my other chemical products get backed up. This lets me burn the excess oil fully, but still have a backup when I get a power spike. (I have since built a bunch of accumulators, it's less complicated, but it was fun watching a power station come online each time I extend the bus)

Since you can click on Power Switches from anywhere on the map, I actually use them as buttons I can press from anywhere to activate things. Right now, I have a Mini-Train Mall that I throw down with robots, and press the 'button' to send them my way. I also practice power management in my base because I'm a nerd when it comes to not wasting power (even though I could just build infinite nuclear plants), and I even have an area with colored lights that tell me which areas are on and off beside my mall for quick reference. Then there is also the power switch on my backup coal plant in case of emergency which may or may not be useless.

Finally. Been waiting for this one.

For the power switch, I had a coal problem that led to me running out of coal for my power plant. I didn't have that many miners at my coal outpost and I had been living on the edge in terms of power production having barely enough to satisfy demand. When my miners ran dry, I went to add more but they were mining on almost zero power so I made power switches to disconnect the power hungry parts of my base until so what little power I had was mainly dedicated to mining coal. As coal production increased, power production increased until I had more power than the coal mining required. I took that as a queue to automate solar panels and accumulators and my next step is to COVER THE LAND WITH PANELS.

you can also read out an accumulator :-)

there is a really cool use for power switches actually. Let's say you're running your base with solars and accumulators. Let's say you don't realize your base suddenly needs more power than before because you forgot to make more solar arrays and accumulators after expanding your production. You can connect a power switch to another power plant (steam powered, for example) to connect to the whole network if the accumulators are almost empty and the solar panels aren't producing (so it's night time). That way you only use panels if they're enough to power your base, and if they're not, you consume your coal/solid fuel. One can go with even more refined solutions where the network reads how much power you'll need, and start the steam plant sooner to accumulate some energy for the night, and then continue running until it needs to. Or forego the accumulators completely and switch part of the steam power plant on when it's dusk/sunrise, and switch it on completely when it's night. Accumulators is easier to setup than this obviously, but it requires a lot more space than a mixed solar/steam with power switches. But you're right. I actually never use it too. Only did once to try it out, then continued with the lazy solutions (either full solar/accumulators, or steam/nuclear depending in which stage of the game I was)

I usually use the power switch to enable/disable non solar power sources. Ex: Early game you must have a coal fuelled power plant but when you create a solar power plant you don't need to boil the steam, as long as you have enough power being generated by the panels and accumulators. So you cut the power plant electric network from your base and it immediately turn off the steam engines.

Thank you very much! This video really explained a lot of things to me that were unclear, even though i know the 'basics' of 'real' programming. I didn't understand before how it really works in Factorio.

super useful, thanks. Cant wait tilll I can watch the rest!

14:35 playing Rampant with True Nukes. I got a perimiter of Capsule Launcher turrets that can lob mini tactical nukes as a last resort if we're getting overrun, (the explosion barely reaches the walls so we "flush out" all biters). Using the electric switch like that could mean i ONLY let those turrets turn on once a certain level of the walls are breached. Very useful. As with so many things, if you dont see a use for it, you havent thought about it enough :)

The best I have seen on this topic. Thanks!

Power switch can be used to isolate an electrical network based on a condition. One thing you can do is trigger back-up power or emergency power. Or you can trip a circuit when power draw is too high and isolate the most power hungry but non-essential sub-systems. If you're about to have a black-out, producing more modules, or more science is not a priority.

Amazing Video Nilaus!

So this is circut school, even with the three levels? Primary: the components and how they work Secondary: how to use these pieces to benefit you in everyday life Collage: not really versatile necessarily but sometimes applicable in niche fields

According to the wiki, pumpjacks can also send their pumping rate and be enabled/disabled on a condition.

I use the power switches to balance the fluids from the refinery, so they keep producing. For instance: The heavy oil tanks are nearly full, then the power switch at the chemical plants jumps in, so they produce light oil from heavy oil and so on.

Fantastic video! Thanks for the tutorial!

A good reason to use the power switches is so you can shut down distant mines and other portions of your base that are not currently necessary to keep running, so the tiles will absorb the pollution and the world won't be as deadly as quickly.

my use of the switch is to do the same job as hooking up an accumulator to water pumps for steam; Disconnect the steam power from the grid, and there's no draw, so it wont run. One switch is quicker to wire up than multiple pumps to cut the water.

A use for the power switch for newer players that dont have a reliable power grid is that the can make the power to theyre radars go through a switch so the can take the power from the radars when theyre generators have problems

Since power in a grid is shared equally among all connected items, a power switch could be used to turn off sections of the grid due to inactivity or in case of blackouts. For example: 1. If your base is under attack and is using up electricity, it'll automatically turn off non essential systems, to prevent the lasers from losing power. Basically you turn off everything but your lasers and then once power grid usage goes back to normal levels, it'll turn those parts back on. I know for some people it'll be a waste of time since it's there's multiple attacks you'll keep getting interruptions, but this is an argument of: "would you rather lose research for a couple of minutes or have a blackout during a biter raid?" 2. Same situation but in reverse, to prevent blackouts, it could connect to reserve grids. (that is if you don't have everything on one giant grid). 3. Turn off a mining array if buffer chests are full ( I mean it does this automatically when it reaches saturation but this gives you more direct control of it). Etc. Etc.

Amazing tutorial

Ive only just started playing factorio, the idea i had with the power switch is to control the mining drills so i can manage stock in my storage mall, i personally dont like seeing conveyor belts from the mining drills being full of minerals when all the storage boxes are full, now its time to be able to operate the power switch at the mineral patches from my base/storage mall

I don't do it myself but most uses I've seen of power switches is to isolate a whole section of the factory under some condition. So, I've seen people use it to: - turn off their steam power when the accumulators are full - stop making all science packs when there is enough of a backlog or power is low. good because so many things use power even when idle - turn off whole sections of laser defence wall when there's no enemies near, avoiding laser idle power use a lot of work. most people (including me) seem to just prefer over-building power!

I used the power switch to take an array of accumulators offline while the steam engines were taking over due to low accumulator charge. I wanted them not to charge off the engines but off solar once i expanded it back appropriately.

@1:37 Lol Yep, Just passing 1070 hours total time and finally decided to learn circuits

You could use the power switch to prioritize electricity to coal miners and steam engines connected to each other - If energy production is too low you could end up with the miners not producing enough coal and the steam engines not producing enough energy resulting in a deathspiral - With the Switch you could unhook power from the rest of the system and the coal mines / steam engines could recover.

I had through of a use for the power switch. I've had trouble balancing liquid production. My refineries produce petroleum, light oil, and heavy oil, but if the tanks for any of those fill up it will stop producing the other two. Adding more tanks is just a temporary fix. I can use the chemical plants to convert excess heavy oil into light oil and light oil into petroleum, but if I leave that going to long then I get to much petroleum. I've had to keep disabling and enabling my chem plant to try and keep a balance depending on my needs. I can tie the power switch to the tanks to have it cut power to the chem plants when they start to fill up on petroleum and start up again when it drops below a certain amount. That way I don't have to manage it. I wish I had known about that when I set up my plants, as I would of planned around it.

I've used the power switch to disconnect the science research block from map view if I want to pool resources for something else (which really wouldn't be needed if I planned ahead a bit better). Also use it with circuit logic to only connect nuclear power when accumulators are below a certain threshold. I know Nilaus likes always on reactors, but I have a hard time overcoming my scarcity mindset.

First, say thax for all your videos and content. I find 2 main uses for the power switch, first one when u need a new research branch, you can turn off power into the for example military invest and let it OFF until u need it again. And another maybe when u have a minor or 3 base for harvest but u doesnt need it yet, then u can turn off until u need this ore, i love forecast, for next trouble. Dont know im new i have less 24 hours. Salute!!!

Power switches have two main uses in my bases. 1) connect to an accumulator to enable non-solar power for backup power to turn on. 2) to control pollution in mid game, every area has a signal to enable or disable. For example, I can turn off copper mining and manufacturing if it's built a good buffer. The switches are connected back to my central command that has a constant combinator with a signal for each switch set to either 1 or 0.

The power switch can be used to switch automatically to accumulators at night, disabling the input from steam engines.

Great guide, since everyone else lists there use of the power switch: Mine is to shut down builds that use a lot of beacons to conserve power. I have a chests with a buffer and if the buffer becomes too full I can conserve some power. I usually overbuild my beaconed builds when I first build them so they often stay idle for a large enough percentage to justify shutting them down when they are not needed. Only drawback is the pain of making sure the power only comes through a single switch, especially when using a blueprint close to another build.

Only serious use I have come up with for the Power Switch is in early-mid game while solar is being established to read the charge on an Accumulator and then connect the Steam Engines if it drops below a certain level -- in order to disable Steam Engines from running through the night if they aren't needed. But this requires building a latch with Deciders to ensure the switch gets disconnected again at the right time. The simpler solution imo is to just keep the networks connected all of the time (to not worry about accidentally bridging them) and have the Inserters that feed the Boilers just not work unless Accumulator charge goes down. No need for Power Switch, separate power networks, or any latches.

I use the On/Off switch for Nuclear Power during the phase where I am first transitioning to it. It allows me to use nuclear power only as backup for when the solar panels run low. I actually double layer the nuclear power so it only inserts fuel when the steam gets low, and on/off to isolate the nuclear power when solar is enough to run the base.

fantastic tutorial!

Super Video, thx!!

I used the power switch when moving from steam to solar power but didn't have the production to fully move over to solar. When an accumulator dropped below a certain level it would reconnect the steam power to the grid as a backup power source.

Powerswitches can also manage if oil refining and chemical plants run. I’m sure you can do some clever load balancing with this but it may be easier controlling pumps which load balance which machines get gas etc instead.

Power switch is essential for my mid game transition to Solar. I keep my steam engines on a separate network. I use it in an SR Latch. When the accumulators reach say 10% the power switch activates to charge the accumulators up to 90% and immediately shut them off. Saves fuel input to the steam engines, and massively reduces pollution. It also completely removes that weird power flickering when you introduce Solar power to the base. The steam engines flicker on and off trying to keep accumulators fully charged. SR Latch with a power switch completely removes that from happening. Another trick is to do the same by your water pumps. Accumulators can put out a signal so you can disable an X amount of offshore pumps to keep steam off, however the leftover water and steam in the boilers will keep them on for a while.

I used the power switch to turn off a belt right after a splitter if the iron plates in a chest exceed a certain amount. It's pretty useful when using a splitter and you need to get iron into two places, but one place has assemblies that work faster (transport belt for example) and the other have assemblies that work slower (red research pack). I may have been able to use something other than the power switch, unsure as I'm new to the game, but it helps a lot when researching mid game and you're starting to get low on resources. It's useful right before exploring other mineable areas with trains, but I reckon it is the most useful when you're limited on resources or need to make items in specific amounts.

I use a power switch at my steam engines. When my engines run out of steam I cut the power to everything except the parts that give me coal (so the line towards my coal miners, the train unload section and obviously the steam engines themselves) so that I can just quickly switch off the grid, throw in the random coal that I don't even know why it was in my inventory and then instead of that being used up instantly for things I don't need making my coal unable to reach the engines, it's usually enough to deliver a single load of coal and as that load reaches the engines. So that way I basically just notice that hey, my power is running out, I throw on the switch and as my new coal is coming in I am fixing whatever the issue was with the power... very over complicated for a very simple issue and there are probably better ways to do it, but it's one of my first playthroughs and I thought it was really cool to set it up :D

Im using power switch to balance outcome of refinery in the mid game. It's for sure worth using in some cases like amunition delivery to far far out flamethrower outpost or multipurpose trains.

I use the power switch for the purpose of shutting down most of my factory in order to improve munitions output and have that be all which is powered. I play the game with increased enemy settings to add a challenge and sometimes i need my factory to only make munitions.

My use for switches: If you power your base by solar energy you don't want to accidentally eat up all the power during the night. So if I have an especially power hungry production unit, I'll plop down a SR-Latch with an accumulator connected and turn off the production if it falls below 10% and only turn it on again if the accumulators go beyond 50% (or sth like that). Sure that's just shifting the problem of too few solar fields, but sometimes I just want to build something without going back to placing solar fields, or even waiting until I have enough material for another solar field. Also if you just barely outpace your power need with solar, and you use laser turrets those kill switches for production units will save your ass, because the lasers won't run out of power (as easily).

Ive only ever used power switches for decommissioning my coal power plant but wanted to keep it available in case of a brownout. Then i figured out the accumulator water pump trick and havent used the switch since.

dang, wanted to learn power switches for a problem I encountered (just started Factorio). Have laser turrents, when they fire it spikes my network because the draw is too high so wanted to have separate power grid, accumulators and solar power during day and at night if it runs out during attacks, connect to main grid

I like using sirens to tell me that a belt with ammo is running dry. This requires immediate attention!

power switches can be use if you don't have 100% satisfaction on your electric network and you want to keep certain part of your base at 100% satisfaction.

The most long-awaited masterclass of them all? Thank you!

I use the Power Switches to turn on and off the chemical plants to balance oil and petrolium instead of using pumps, so the fluids are never constrained to only one way in the pipes. I also use them with RS latches to conect/disconect the backup steam power in mid game.

I used a relay connected to a buffer chest to turn off my radars when the buffer (containing fuel for a dedicated power plant) ran out. Preventing excess load on my system and giving me an alert so I could fix it. They can also be used to keep idle power consumption low on parts of your network that only need to be on intermittently. Small savings but they add up.

7:19 this, this is what f my mind so much.

Switches are useful when playing the standard game amd are trying to minimize and/or consolidate pollution by minimizing idle equipment to your power network. Even if inserters or other machinery are not actively doing anything, if they are connected to power, there is some parisitic/standby draw. This creates pollution and worse yet, wastes fuel. Using switches allows you to eliminate that waste. Also, you can use it to turn off whole sections of machinery without having to run secondary signal wires everywhere.

Very good video. I however use the power switch for controlling my oil production cause its so simple. I Connect it to the oil tank with heavy oil and put conditions to only turn the power on for the chem factory that produces light oil if the heavy oil reservoir is above a certain threshold. In this way I always maintain enough heavy oil to produce lubricant but at the same time if it is too full (which would stop the refineries) then it starts converting to light oil etc. Works like a charm and doesn't require any programming. A few of these turn power on or off to entire sections of chem factories that is thus regulated. And it also saves power on building that are not in use. This can be used in various ways e.g. if chests are full so factories don't use standby power.

I use the switch to control the steam energy in my own base. If the solar panels are not enough and the charge of my batteries drops below 20%, I activate the steam system.

Power switch is good for backup steam power for electric grid. Just read accumulator charge and run it through some logic to make a latch, and then have that operating the power switch to the steam generators. It causes you to burn through less coal/solid fuel as it only turns them on when needed.

Very clear

I used circuits right away in my first game. (I'm a programmer so the concepts are familiar to me). Especially the power switch. I use it all the time! Main use: turn off power draining parts of the base if the power runs low. (which happens all the time for various reasons.) I also use it for science lanes: the switch has a condition: turn off if you have buffered N science bottles. I also use the power switch to separate (fields of) accumulators from the power network to keep them in reserve in case of a blackout. Another common setup: Buffering of base resources. You have buffered 2M copper? => turn off the power draining beacons.

I like to use the power switch attached to accumulators to cut off some things I dont want to run on lower power or to start up more power gen when needed

Your factory is so neat compared to mine. Mine is so messy! To be fair, it’s my first playthrough. 67 hours in!

I've used the switch to turn of science at times if power got too low in order to keep the lasers and rest of the base running. (Other stuff will backlog, so it's only a minor delay.) But once getting nuclear, then that's not really needed. Other than that, cutting power to a music box made with the programmable speaker. But that's more of a novelty than anything important to the game. Then of course outside the switch there's the always venerable SR-latch. Which is something that is mostly handy for economizing power production and sometimes useful for managing fluids going to certain processes. And of course counters in regards to controlling an inserter or belt if you want to meter out certain resources.

I have 2 ways of producing petroleum gas: 1 the good ol oil refinery and 2 the coal liqification process. I have coal next to my base so I don't really want to use the oil if I don't need it, so i put up a power switch witch indicates if the coal liqification machine cant handle the pressure the oil refinery are used

I use the power switch for backup power. For example when I move to nuclear I keep my steam boiler connected via a power switch. It’s save me several times form total power failure.

ive used the power switches as transistors to make in-game computers before. i remember making the different gates, basic binary math circuits and part of some ram but quit because of frustration from power pole connections not being saved on blueprints, which meant every time i copied something i had to manually disconnect and reconnect the power poles which was a nightmare.

I use power switch to read contents of a chest or fluid container, if it reaches some amount of items, power switch turns on or off some mashines that produces it. I find it very useful to control my oil processing plant, for example if i have to much light oil switch turns on and i convert it to petroleum gas. If i have too litle of it, onother switch turns on and heavy is converted to light oil.

The only time I used power switches is when I wanted to control pollution, for instance if I want to mine a specific amount of ore and then stop. It's almost never the right thing to do, if you're playing toward the standard victory conditions in the vanilla game; you're always trying to make more products continuously and ever faster, without regard to pollution. But you could imagine setting a goal for yourself to achieve a rocket launch without letting the biters advance beyond 50% evolution, for example.

The power switch is useful if you have decided to build a solar-powered base and use laser turrets for defense. You can keep a steam power plant in reserve and only connect it to the power network if the total charge in your accumulators drops below, say, 20%. So the only time your steam plant will consume fuel is when it's the middle of the night and biters are swarming your perimeter so much that your accumulators are running out.

14:40 if you are doing solar instead of wasting millions of land to keep it up on night you can set it up so logic turns on steam at night

Power switches are use to automate thing like "dont burn coal or nuclear if solar outputs enough"

I used the Powerswitch to prevent the system to overfloat with empty barrels. If there were enough of barals, the barelfactory turned of. I configured a max number, and a working nunber. if one of these were reaced, the switch turned the factory of.

are you a programmer? this is not the first time I come across the feeling that you are while watching your videos :D I am, and well, I love your videos. thank you for them.

The power on/off switch could be useful if you are using boilers to make steam to store from solar power. During the night when you are using stored steam and no solar, you don't want to be using that steam power to run the boilers to make steam. It's handy for an off-world base in Factorio space exploration addon.

You can also read accumulator charge in to the circuit network.

Regarding the power switch, I used it once for an emergency power bank. Separate a group of accumulators and set them to only connect to the network with an alarm if either the accumulators are low or the base power is low. It did pay off once when some aliens killed the main power supply, the emergency power lasted long enough for me to reconnect the main power. Though like I said, it only paid off once and for pretty much the rest of the game I just had some charged accumulators doing nothing, it might not be the most useful thing in the world.