Hey there Hyper. I know this is already in the cards and it will be fully implemented sometime, I just thought I would see if I could help some with it.
First I have a description that is believable for the battery racks that you can use if you like.
The object you have selected is the colony's battery rack and power conditioning system.
Systems within the unit convert the batteries 48 volts direct current into standard European 230 volts 50hz alternating current.
Excess power is stored in Lithium polymer battery packs and a bank of glass capacitors within the unit to handle surge loads. The system can be ran without the battery packs, using only the capacitors, but the loads have to be kept even with the power supply.
The conversion is done by high efficiency, very high capacity, solid state inverters built into the housing. In addition to making the electricity alternating current at a higher voltage, they smooth out the dips and sags that occur as the batteries start getting weaker and their voltage drops, and they can also protect equipment from unexpected spikes from the generating systems.
The conversion to alternating current at the higher voltage helps dramatically reduce the amount of wire needed within the habitat. The alternating current also allows simple transformers to be used as voltage steppers whenever higher or lower voltages are necessary.
The unit itself is designed to be simple, reliable and rugged with the minimal amount of maintenance required, with heat triggered mechanical disconnects to protect the habitat from fire in case of batteries overheating, and circuit breakers in case of a short circuit.
I tried to organize the description so the most important parts are stated first, with the more trivial knowledge kept to the end.
I used Europe's standard rather than the USA's as I liked the higher voltage. America's would only be able to go half the distance in the wires before the voltage drop would become significant.
The capacitor bank mentioned I believe will save you much programming mischief as you make batteries swappable. I was thinking if current batteries have a capacity of 100, then the capacitor bank should have a capacity of about 5. That would be enough to allow a habitat to operate kinda normally without a battery in it, if there was a very strong generator attached.
IE: Maximum capacity of the power system with 4 batteries would be 405. And minimum with no batteries would be 5.
Just my thoughts of course, but I think it will save you headaches.
Anyhow, I hope what I have wrote will be useful.
*code tag makes the description hard to read I see.
* glass capacitors are being planned to replace batteries in hybrid vehicles because of their lightweight construction, very high energy density, and ability to cycle indefinitely.
