I took a month and made a list of various ideas for things that could use our fluorite domestically and then pitched it to the minister's council so they could make a decision on what exactly I should focus on. I pitched the idea of a simpler cargo vessel that could haul more materials with a lower cost to us, but that was shot down. If we're going to be building boats, it seems that at a minimum they have to be dual purpose military craft or they're unlikely to be approved.

There were multiple ideas that were shot down because the amount of construction work to integrate the use wasn't really worth the miniscule benefit it would provide. For example, I proposed adding more salt and fresh water production, but that was shot down on the basis that we're already having trouble selling all the salt we're producing with the war being over, and freshwater is unlikely to be a problem for decades if not centuries.

That feedback meant that a large amount of the work done to utilize the fluorite needed to come from other kinds of work, like integrating them into mana engines and installing those inside simpler buildings. We're limited on the rate that we can actually expand steel production lines by other production limitations since it's a whole chain of production, so that isn't going to be viable to speed up either.

After a lot of discussion of ideas, including ideas that other people had that I had to analyze and determine if they were feasible or not, we settled on creating electrical power facilities. We currently don't have a wide electrical grid, but it is something that could hypothetically be worked on. We have a handful of electrical plants that directly power the devices they're intended to use. In theory we could start building out electrical facilities in places around the island and start the process of creating a networked grid. That's actually quite the complicated process to fully integrate, as you have to balance loads and have feedback systems and operators at each.

We recently finished a different project that could make it significantly more feasible, and would allow us to utilize our island's mana far more effectively. Large scale fluorite powered facilities reduce the local mana, competing with other mana-powered sources and reducing their general effectiveness. We've had to spread our factories further and further from populated areas, leading to longer and longer commutes for workers to compensate for this.

However, we now have hundreds of tunnels that poke out around the island that are all attached to a central shaft. These tunnels could not only provide a fairly safe path for power cables to be connected, but also would allow much faster transit to and from any particular power plant in remote locations. Now, they're not so close that individuals working at them would be able to return home each day. They'd likely need to do rotating shifts where they stay for an extended period then return for that same period, so each power facility would need to also have room and board along with food storage.

However, each tunnel is fairly well spaced from others, so they could each have their own non-interfering power station. That power could then be sent to the cities to power factories without needing to spread them further and further away. There will be electrical losses as a result, but ultimately it could simplify the design process for new facilities.

So, it's up to me to design the necessary components for such an electrical grid, and there are quite a few components that I'll have to design. First, the generator itself requires a lot of modifications compared to a standard mana engine and the generators we've made in the past. Each generator needs to have a method by which it can automatically adjust the amount of power it produces to adapt to grid conditions. Maintaining a fixed frequency and voltage is very important for the purposes of having a stable foundation for other devices to operate on the electrical power produced.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

What I agreed to in discussions with the ministers was that these power plants will only be using two fixed sizes of cut fluorite plates. This limits the amount of design work I'll have to do for each power plant. It won't use up all of our fluorite plates as a result, but since it will be taking up the bulkiest portions, it'll save on storage considerably. The smaller plates could be regrown into larger plates again if needed as well.

I'll have to take a number of measurements and do a lot of testing on the number of windings and sizes of copper wire I use in the generators too. After the generators are designed, there are still more components that have to be designed. I thought about the idea of using steam as an intermediate, but that would complicate matters considerably because we'd have to get water to each facility. Instead, they'll likely operate on a modified stirling design. The generators themselves are probably going to output a much higher voltage than the general grid, but potentially lower than the transmission lines, meaning I'll need to also do data collection on transformer properties to convert AC voltages effectively.

The most important thing to do first is design the generators though, since other individuals will be in charge of producing their components and assembling them. Transformers and other non-fluorite components can be installed later, since the priority is utilizing our own fluorite. This is all in addition to the work I have to do at the academy. I'll probably try to get some students to assist me in the research work I have to do on various components, just to reduce my own work load.

The rest of the semester was quite hectic. I had a lot of work to do tinkering with generators, preparing for the first class's first set of graduates, approving last-year projects, and handling the engineering clubs. On some days, at least, I was able to work through the night collecting data on generator windings and wire thickness and how they influenced performance. If we didn't have a large mana crystal on this island, I'd be out of luck in being able to do the necessary research, but with it here, I was also able to collect performance data on mana engines at various ambient mana levels around Drazvok.

An important aspect that I'm having to contend with is that I need consistent and predictable power output from the generators, but that fluctuates with the ambient mana level. That mana level also fluctuates throughout the day and during eclipses. As such, we actually have a bit of an interesting problem to solve. It means that the governor that I design for regulating the power of the engine will have to be quite flexible.

It also means that electrically powered facilities will need to be aware that during eclipses they'll have to reduce their power demands. They'll also need to reduce power demands at night, but a lot of our facilities already only work during the day, so that isn't as big of a concern. There is another thing we need to be concerned with, and that is the effect another mana crystal would have on the grid. Hypothetically, we could install another mana crystal on Kembora. We don't know exactly what effect this would have overall on the ambient mana as we simply lack enough data to determine that. We have some data from the transport of the Drazvok crystal, but now that the Drazvok crystal is in place, yet another crystal may have a reduced or amplified effect, its hard to say.

Such an introduction has the potential to fry the grid if not handled safely, as the sudden increase in mana might be more than the automatic governors on the generators can handle. These are all things that I'm noting down to be included in operational and informational instructions to prevent a total grid collapse in the future.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.