I was away from PA since before the pandemic lockdowns, but I'm digging back into it and the DLC is a lot of fun.

Notwithstanding SpiffingBrit's farming-simulator video from a few months ago, I've become enamored with the idea of developing an early-game money-printer through exporting green energy. I only got this idea when I accidentally stumbled and discovered that the 5000-cap for exports is per export meter, and not per prison.

Is there a way to balance or optimize this? My first instinct was to place all energy_producers on a single trunk, and then branch it off to multiple transformers that are compartmentalized by electric_switches. My hope was that as the magnitude of overall production increased, I could max-fill each transformer-export_meter-10batt setup more quickly. Alas, even though some benevolent weather can allow some generation spikes in excess of 13k, I am pretty confident that the 10 batteries surrounding each transformer still only fill at the same rate as if I were supplying precisely 5k power.

I get the distinct feeling that optimized ratios might await discovery, but I'm not sure I have the patience to devote to a sandbox map just to experiment, or at least I would wanna confirm that I'm not duplicating someone else's work already underway or completed. Also, I've been tantalized by the thought of using some of the logic circuits / logic bridges to allow for automated switching between multiple transformers, so as to allow not only optimized exporting but also for design redundancy in hardmode gameplay.

If anyone has any guidance or thoughts on this, I'd benefit to hear about it.