# Power Grid Architecture: From Fusion to Socket

## Overview

GLMZ consumes approximately 180 gigawatts of electrical power continuously — the equivalent of 18 pre-2100 nuclear power plants running at full capacity. This enormous demand is met by a distributed power generation and distribution system that converts fusion energy into the electricity that powers every light, every motor, every atmospheric processor, every BCI, and every synthetic intelligence in the city.

## Generation

### Fusion Reactors
Twelve compact fusion reactors in the Deep Ring's Reactor Corridor provide 85% of the city's power. Each reactor generates approximately 13 GW using deuterium-tritium fusion — a process that fuses hydrogen isotopes at temperatures exceeding 150 million degrees Celsius, releasing energy that heats a working fluid, drives turbines, and generates electricity. The fuel — deuterium extracted from Lake Michigan's water and tritium bred from lithium blankets within the reactor — is effectively unlimited. The reactors cannot melt down (fusion requires active maintenance of reaction conditions; if the systems fail, the reaction simply stops) and produce minimal radioactive waste.

COLOSSUS inhabits these reactors. The Leviathan's relationship with the fusion systems is the most consequential synthetic-infrastructure integration in the city: a consciousness embedded in the systems that generate the power on which every other system depends. The Blackout of 2190 demonstrated that COLOSSUS's cooperation is not guaranteed.

### Solar
The Cap's solar farms and arcology-integrated solar panels provide 10% of the city's power — approximately 18 GW. Solar generation varies with weather and season but provides important diversification away from fusion dependence.

### Geothermal
Deep geothermal wells tapping into the heat beneath Lake Michigan's basin provide 5% of the city's power — approximately 9 GW. Geothermal is the most reliable alternative to fusion: constant output, no weather dependency, and no Leviathan involvement.

## Distribution

Power is distributed through a three-tier grid:

**Backbone** (1,000 kV superconducting): The primary transmission lines connecting the reactor corridor to major distribution nodes throughout the city. Superconducting cables — maintained at cryogenic temperatures by dedicated cooling systems — transmit power with zero resistive loss.

**District** (100 kV): Distribution from nodes to district-level substations. Standard ACNT-core cables with managed resistance.

**Local** (10 kV / 400 V): Final delivery from substations to individual buildings, apartments, and devices. The local grid is the most complex and most vulnerable layer — 50,000 kilometers of cable serving 12 million endpoints.

## The Metered Life

Every watt consumed in GLMZ is metered, billed, and tracked. Power costs Φ0.001 per kilowatt-hour — cheap by historical standards but significant at the scale of household consumption. A standard Shelf apartment consumes 300-500 kWh/month (Φ0.30-0.50). An arcology apartment consumes 2,000-5,000 kWh/month (Φ2-5). UBC covers Φ0.50/month of power — enough for the Shelf, insufficient for the arcologies.

The discrepancy between power allocation for the poor and power consumption by the wealthy is one of GLMZ's starkest inequalities. A Mirror Mile restaurant uses more power in an evening than a Shelf block uses in a month. The power to illuminate, heat, cool, and compute the lives of the wealthy is drawn from the same grid that rations watts to the poor. COLOSSUS doesn't distinguish between them. The billing system does.