128 on Copper is good. 128 on Tin is badAh, that makes sense. It sounds very much like I remember it working in the old Tekkit days actually!
I'm currently playing beyond, and I've only built two machines - an extractor and a metal former. Both of those are hooked up with copper cable, and the forestry bio generator seems to be making MV (128) packets, and nothing has blown up for me. Of course, if the bio generator is only sending packets of 32 EU down the copper cables (which I think is possible?), then that could also be a reason. Is there a safe way to test, I wonder?
EDIT: Ignore that, I just remembered the EU Reader and now feel like a massive derp.
You're right that the EU-Reader is your friend, but its worth noting that it doesn't always work with machines that aren't native to IC2 (even if they handle EU)