KRONOS-CTRL: Power Systems Module
The Power Systems module tracks direct-energy-conversion voltages, extraction efficiency, and grid synchronization for the burner.
Scope
The Power Systems module is the part of KRONOS-CTRL that models the electrical side of the burner: the multi-modal DEC train (TWDEC, ultra-high-field MHD conversion, thermionics), the power electronics, and the interface to the grid. It maintains a live estimate of collector potentials, per-stage extraction efficiency, and delivered electrical power, and projects them over the shadow horizon.
State and coupling
Its state includes the DEC electrode potentials, the streaming end-loss power reaching each conversion stage, and the grid phase/frequency the output must track. It is tightly coupled to the MHD/confinement side: the end-loss power it converts is set by the ambipolar potential and plug density, and its collector potentials feed back as a boundary condition on that same potential. KRONOS-CTRL resolves this coupling each twin step so the electrical and plasma pictures stay consistent.
- Tracks: DEC collector potentials, per-stage efficiency, delivered power
- Consumes: end-loss power profile from the MHD/confinement modules
- Provides: potential boundary for the ambipolar solve; grid-sync state
- Serves: DEC-voltage MPC and grid-synchronization dispatch
For grid synchronization the module models the machine as a controllable source that must phase- and frequency-lock to the interconnect and ramp within limits, whether feeding a MetroVolt data-center load or an Aegis fixed installation. It reports dispatch-relevant quantities, available power, ramp rate, sync status, in operational terms only.
The breeder has an analogous but simpler electrical picture (it is optimized for tritium, helium-3 and 14 MeV neutron production rather than net electrical output), so its Power Systems module tracks auxiliary and magnet power draw and plant balance rather than a DEC train. Both share the same module framework and grid-sync machinery.