The Power Distributor takes power from the Power Plant, and distributes it to the ship's three main onboard areas: Systems [SYS], Engine [ENG], and Weapons [WEP]. It also includes a capacitor bank for each of the three systems, plus a three-way recharge capability. Power Distributors are rated by their energy-storage capacity (the maximum charge in each capacitor) and by their recharge rate (how many power units per second are recharged if that capacitor is at full four pips).
The recharge rate directly correlates to the number of pips the player has assigned to each system. For example, if the 1E Power Distributor (which has a Weapons Recharge rate of 1.200) has all four pips enabled for WEP, it will recharge at a rate of 1.2 power units per second. If it is set for two pips, WEP will recharge at 0.6 power units per second. This means you could fire a single Fixed Beam Laser for approximately six seconds before it overheats. If a power distributor is disabled it will function normally without the ability to change pip allocation. The power distribution will be what it was before it was disabled.
All Power Distributors are capable of recharging WEP considerably faster than SYS or ENG, and that SYS and ENG always have the same maximum recharge rate.
