Electricity and batteries
Electricity is what turns a collection of machines into a working workshop. Start with a simple Boiler Engine + Alternator, connect one machine with Power Cable, and only add batteries once that basic circuit works.
Power, Blue Signal, items and water are separate networks. Power Cable carries electricity. It does not carry water, items or Blue Signal.
The Boiler Engine and Alternator are two separate machines. The boiler burns coal/charcoal and water to turn its right-hand mechanical shaft. The alternator converts that shaft power into 800 W of electricity. A boiler has no electrical output of its own.
Boiler Engine → directly coupled Alternator → Power Cable → Battery or powered machines
Place the alternator immediately beside the boiler’s right-hand shaft, with both machines facing the same direction. The alternator’s left-hand shaft must meet the boiler’s right-hand shaft. There must be no cable, pipe or air gap between the two machines. Connect the electrical cable to a free face of the alternator.
A Power Cable that appears to touch the boiler’s shaft does not convert mechanical power into electricity. The shaft is not an electrical socket. Moving the cable to another boiler face will not produce power either.
Running confirms that the boiler is consuming fuel and water and driving its shaft. It does not confirm that an alternator is attached, that electricity is reaching a cable grid, or that a battery is charging.
The boiler currently keeps consuming fuel and water when no alternator is attached, when cables are disconnected, when loads are idle, or when batteries are full. It does not automatically stop for lack of electrical demand. Complete the generator and cable setup before adding fuel. A declining fuel timer is not proof of electrical generation; inspect the alternator and then the battery.
These player-provided screenshots from September 12, 2026 illustrate the problem. The upright copper machine is the boiler. The black cable runs from its shaft area to the battery, but the setup has no coupled alternator, so this route supplies 0 W.
The boiler below reports Running and has a decreasing fuel timer. Its description says Coal / charcoal + water → right-hand shaft: this panel reports boiler operation, not electrical output.
- Supply the boiler with coal/charcoal and water.
- Check that the adjacent alternator’s shafts meet the boiler’s shaft and both machines face the same direction. A correctly coupled running boiler lets the alternator supply 800 W.
- Run Power Cable from the alternator, through connected cable cells, to the battery. A separate output cable grid may run from that battery to a crusher.
- Leave the battery on Automatic for charging and supply, or ChargeOnly if you only want it to charge. Full batteries cannot store more energy.
- Inspect actual battery input/output and stored energy. On one shared grid, machines receive power first and batteries share the surplus. With only one running boiler/alternator and an otherwise idle battery connection, the battery should receive the full 800 W while it has room.
This is an actual in-game Rivet Reach workshop. The Boiler Engine drives the Alternator mechanically, and the Alternator feeds the electrical network through Power Cable.
For the first test, keep it small. You need:
| What to bring | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 Boiler Engine | Burns Coal or Charcoal and turns fuel + water into mechanical power |
| 1 Alternator | Converts the Boiler Engine's shaft power into up to 800 W of electricity |
| Power Cable | Carries electricity between the Alternator, batteries and machines |
| Coal or Charcoal | Fuel for the Boiler Engine |
| Water | The Boiler Engine consumes up to 100 mL/s while running |
| 1 powered machine | Something simple to prove the circuit works; a Workshop Lamp is ideal |
Place the Boiler Engine where you have room to reach its interfaces and route water to it.
A single Coal or Charcoal item keeps the boiler running for 80 eligible seconds, provided it also has water.
The Boiler Engine and Alternator must face the same direction. Place the Alternator immediately on the Boiler Engine's right-hand side so their mechanical shafts meet.
If the shafts do not meet, reposition or rotate the machines to align them. The boiler’s right and alternator’s left are relative to their facing direction; placing the alternator on another side does not couple it. Configured pipe-end directions remain independent.
Open the Boiler Engine and add Coal or Charcoal. Supply water through its interface or fluid connection.
A boiler with fuel but no water cannot drive the Alternator. A Pump needs no electricity, so it can deliver the startup water through Fluid Pipe and restore supply after a blackout.
Run Power Cable from any free face of the Alternator to any free face of your powered machine.
For a very easy first test, connect a Workshop Lamp. It only needs 20 W, so a single 800 W Alternator has plenty of headroom.
Open the machine interface. It reports the power it is requesting and the power it is actually receiving.
If the machine runs, you now have a working electrical network.
A correctly coupled Boiler Engine + Alternator can supply up to 800 W.
| Machine | Full-power demand |
|---|---|
| Workshop Lamp | 20 W |
| Pump | 0 W — no electricity required |
| Crusher | 160 W |
| Drill | 240 W |
You can run several machines on the same network as long as generation can cover their combined demand.
For example, two Drills + two Crushers request exactly 800 W. Adding a Lamp raises demand to 820 W, exceeding one Alternator’s output.
Machines have High / Normal / Low power priority. Higher-priority loads are served first. Machines at the same priority share the available whole watts fairly.
Underpowered processing machines do not instantly fail or lose their inputs: they work more slowly in proportion to the power they receive.
| Electrical situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Generation is greater than demand | Machines receive power first; remaining surplus can charge batteries |
| Generation matches demand | Machines run normally; there is no surplus to store |
| Demand is greater than generation | Charged batteries can supply the shortfall |
| Demand still exceeds generation + battery output | Priority applies, then equal-priority loads share the available power |
A single Battery Block is the easiest way to add energy storage before building a larger bank.
A Battery Block:
- stores 100 kJ;
- captures all available surplus and supplies demand while it has charge, with no separate wattage cap;
- starts empty when crafted or granted from the Creative catalog; recovered blocks keep their charge;
- can connect to Power Cable on any face;
- does not lose charge while simply sitting idle.
The amber liquid-like level inside a placed battery shows its stored charge at a glance. Half height means 50 kJ / 100 kJ; an empty battery has no fill. The level rises while charging and falls as connected machines consume the reserve. In a bank, each cell shows its own charge; open the controller for the combined total.
Connect it to the same electrical network as your generator and machines.
Machines are supplied before batteries charge. A Battery Block only takes generator power that is left over after the current loads have been served.
When generation later falls below demand, a charged battery automatically supplies the missing power.
At a continuous 800 W of surplus, an empty 100 kJ Battery Block takes 125 seconds to fill. A completely full block could power a lone 20 W Workshop Lamp for 5,000 seconds.
You can wire Alternator → cable grid A → Battery → cable grid B → Crusher. Grid A and grid B remain separate until their cables physically touch. Each battery face works automatically; no wrench setting is needed.
With one running alternator and one crusher, the battery shows 800 W charge, 160 W output, and gains 640 J per second. It can charge and supply at the same time, including when starting empty. Two alternators can put all 1,600 W into one battery when loads are idle and there is room.
Breaking the input cable leaves the crusher running from stored charge. Breaking the output cable lets the battery keep charging. Replacing a cable restores the route after the network recalculates. Other machines also terminate cable runs: run actual cable around them to join separate grids.
Open a Power Cable to inspect that grid's actual input, requirements and connected stored energy. Storage attached to several grids is the same shared reserve, not a separate copy for each grid.
For fuel-free generation, add Solar Panels and Wind Turbines to these same cable grids.
All generator inputs on a connected cable grid are combined. Machines are served first. Battery output only supplies machine demand: it cannot charge another battery, including when cables form a loop.
Each connected cable grid compares generation with machine demand. If generation is higher, the surplus charges all eligible batteries equally. If demand is higher, batteries with energy share the missing power equally. Full batteries stop taking charge; empty batteries stop supplying it; their unused shares go to the others. Tiny whole-watt leftovers rotate between batteries.
For example, 800 W generation − 160 W crusher demand = 640 W surplus. Two batteries each charge at 320 W. When the boiler stops, each supplies 80 W to keep that crusher running. A formed battery bank counts as one storage endpoint alongside other batteries or banks. Equal transfer rates do not erase differences in starting charge.
Actual September 12, 2026 player captures from that two-battery setup:
The same sharing principle applies to branched item and fluid pipes, with their own resource and direction rules.
Open a Battery Block to change how it behaves.
| Mode | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Automatic | Charges from surplus generation and discharges when the network needs power |
| ChargeOnly | Can charge, but never supplies connected loads |
| DischargeOnly | Can supply loads, but will not recharge |
| Isolated | Keeps its stored energy and does not exchange power |
For normal workshop use, leave the battery on Automatic.
DischargeOnly lets you spend a battery’s remaining charge on real loads without charging it again.
When 100 kJ is no longer enough, Battery Blocks can be combined with a Battery Bank Controller into one larger storage system.
This actual in-game bank is supplying a Workshop Lamp after generation has stopped:
| In-game block | What it does |
|---|---|
|
Battery Block |
Stores 100 kJ in the shared bank |
 Battery Bank Controller |
Forms and controls the bank; the controller itself stores no energy |
A valid battery bank is very different from a multiblock tank:
A battery bank is a completely filled solid rectangular pack. Do not leave an empty interior.
Each outer dimension may be from 1 to 5 blocks, and the finished rectangle must contain exactly one controller and at least one Battery Block.
The easiest bank is just one controller and one battery:
Top view
B C
B = Battery Block
C = Battery Bank Controller
Place the controller from outside so its front faces outward. Fill the rest of the chosen rectangle with Battery Blocks.
A compact 2×1×2 bank can contain one controller and three Battery Blocks:
Top view
B B
C B
C front faces outward
With three battery cells, this bank stores:
- 300 kJ total energy;
- charge and output determined by connected generation, demand and available storage.
The controller contributes control and the external socket, but zero storage capacity.
- Place the Battery Bank Controller from outside, with its front face accessible.
- Fill every other position in the rectangular pack with Battery Blocks.
- Leave no gaps, hollow spaces or unrelated blocks inside the rectangle.
- Open the controller and check that it reports FORMED and the expected dimensions.
- Connect Power Cable to the controller's accessible faces.
- Run your generator and let surplus power charge the bank.
The controller shows the combined stored energy and the current charge/output rate:
Once the bank forms, the controller owns the electrical connection and operating mode for the whole pack.
The individual Battery Block sockets become inactive while those cells belong to the bank. Opening a member cell shows that it has been claimed by a bank.
Each Battery Block keeps its own exact stored energy internally, so forming or dismantling a bank does not create, destroy or redistribute charge.
Do not build two separate battery banks directly touching each other. Leave an air gap between packs so each connected rectangular group contains only one controller.
Both battery assemblies are made at the Machinist's Bench.
Craft with:
- 1 Machine Casing
- 2 Copper Plate
- 4 Copper Wire
- 2 Coal
Craft with:
- 1 Machine Casing
- 4 Copper Wire
- 1 Azure Crystal
- 1 Glass
The item sidebar in the game also shows these recipes and their upstream materials.
Once the basic generator → cable → machine → battery setup works, scale it in stages rather than building a large network all at once.
- your machines regularly outlive the current fuel cycle;
- demand briefly exceeds generation;
- you want lights or important machines to keep working after a boiler stops;
- you have useful generation surplus that is currently being wasted.
- batteries rarely or never reach full charge;
- the bank continuously discharges while the workshop is busy;
- high-priority machines are starving lower-priority machines;
- your normal continuous load is close to or above 800 W.
Batteries smooth out shortages, but they are storage, not generation. If the workshop consumes more energy over time than the generators produce, even a huge bank will eventually empty.
Battery charge belongs to the individual Battery Blocks.
If a block is removed and the remaining shape is no longer a filled rectangle, the bank becomes invalid. Unclaimed cells return to standalone operation and their own sockets work again.
To enlarge a bank, add Battery Blocks until the whole structure forms a new filled rectangular pack. Its total capacity updates when the controller validates the new shape.
Adding an empty Battery Block adds capacity, not free energy.
Mining keeps the charge. The recovered Battery Block carries its exact energy, including when removed from a bank. Other bank cells keep their own charge. Place the recovered block to use that reserve again.
Charged batteries each occupy one inventory slot and cannot stack with empty or other charged batteries. Chests, item pipes, dropped items and saved games preserve their contents. Empty batteries stack normally.
To deliberately discard the charge, select the battery in your hotbar and hold Shift, then left-click. You keep the empty block and can stack it again. You can also Shift-left-click an inventory slot while holding the battery on your inventory cursor. This destroys the stored energy; discharge into a load if you want to use it instead.
Actual game capture, 2026-09-13: the recovered battery retains 1.234567 kJ.
The Battery Bank Controller can be removed without draining because the controller itself stores no energy.
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Boiler is Running and consuming fuel, but the battery gets nothing | The boiler can run without an alternator and has no electrical output. Couple an alternator directly to its right-hand shaft, then connect the cable to the alternator. Fuel consumption alone does not establish electricity production. |
| Alternator produces no power | Make sure the Boiler Engine has both fuel and water, the machines face the same direction, and the Alternator is immediately on the boiler's right with the shafts meeting. |
| Machine receives 0 W | Check that Power Cable reaches any machine face through a continuous cable route and that a Blue Signal connection is not holding the machine OFF. |
| Machine runs slowly | Open it and compare requested vs received watts. Total demand may exceed generation, or a higher-priority load may be taking power first. |
| Battery never charges | First confirm the source is a coupled, running alternator, not a cable attached to a boiler. Batteries only receive true surplus. Disconnect or stop some loads and check whether generation now exceeds demand. Also check that the battery is not DischargeOnly or Isolated. |
| Battery never discharges | Check that it contains energy and is not ChargeOnly or Isolated. The network must also have real unmet electrical demand. |
| Battery bank will not form | The pack must be a completely filled rectangular solid, 1–5 blocks along each dimension, with exactly one controller and at least one Battery Block. Remove gaps and unrelated blocks. |
| Controller formed but cable does nothing | Connect Power Cable to the controller on any exposed face. Member-cell sockets are inactive while the bank is formed. |
| Two nearby banks interfere with each other | Leave an air gap between separate packs. Touching battery groups can be interpreted as one connected structure containing multiple controllers. |
| Recovered battery will not stack | It still contains charge. Place it to use the reserve, or Shift-left-click with it in hand to discard its charge. |
| Battery seems to lose progress after forming a bank | Formation does not redistribute energy between cells. The controller reports their combined total; each cell retains its exact stored energy. |
The machine interface separates Power network: connected / not connected from the watts reaching the machine. Connected means an electrical link is registered; it does not guarantee generation or stored charge. A connected machine with zero supplied watts shows No electrical power. Starting or stopping generation and emptying a battery do not require reconnecting the network.
Power Cable connects to any of the six faces of a generator, battery or powered machine, including top and bottom. Electricity flows automatically and does not need an Input/Output setting or a wrench. A charged battery in Automatic mode can power a crusher through a side cable; it does not need to be fully charged.
For Item Pipes and Fluid Pipes, select a Wrench and right-click the machine-facing end. Blue enters the machine; red exits it. See Pipes for the complete setup guide.
- Pipes and pumps — bring water to Boiler Engines and other machines.
- Tanks — build larger water storage for an industrial workshop.
- Blue Signal — control machines without confusing signal wiring with electrical power.
- Crafting — find recipes and use the Machinist's Bench.
Craft a Hand Crank at a workbench using 2 copper ingots, 1 iron ingot, 1 stick and 2 planks in any arrangement (one stack for each ingredient). Select it and right-click a battery's side to attach it. Leave room to stand in front of the handle.
Aim at the crank and right-click once for a turn, or hold right-click to keep turning. Each half-second turn generates 50 J. The bound Interact key also turns it. Inspect the battery from another side to see the stored charge; use Automatic or ChargeOnly mode to charge. A bank must receive power through its controller on any exposed face.
Connected machines use power first; the remainder charges storage. A full or isolated battery accepts none. Release the button or look away to stop further turns; the current turn finishes. The crank needs no fuel, water or Azure component, and can also feed a power cable on any face.
The Electric Furnace uses 200 W for the same smelting and cooking recipes as a normal furnace. Connect it on any face; a charged battery can run it without item fuel. Full-power recipes take 10 seconds and 2 kJ.