At 16:03 low power warnings came on and the lights started to go out in many modules of the station. The backup power supply, which is supposed to kick in the event of a reactor shutdown, failed to switch over. This left the station in the dark and unable to operate until crew members began shutting off power to individual modules to reduce power consumption.
Luckily the high security prison was designed with failsafe measures in place. The cell doors remain locked and each cell has its own supply of oxygen in case of emergency. This prevented any escape attempts while the prison was low on power.
An frantic investigation by the MPS crew determined that the station did not have enough power generation to power all of the prison cells and life support functions. Normally issues like this are discovered during commissioning when the station functions are checked out before leaving the assembly area. It was quite a surprise for the crew to discover it two weeks after the station was in position and operational.
The root cause was eventually determined to be that the backup batter system was left connected and running on the main power grid while the station was undergoing checkouts for its power generation. This caused the station to appear to generate more power than it was actually generating. During the course of the two weeks in operation the battery backup was gradually discharged until it failed. With the battery backup no longer able to supply the additional power, the station modules began to shut down.
Luckily an emergency construction crew was able to be dispatched. They added an additional nuclear generator to the station as well as two watch tower. The station is now back up to full operational capacity.
