17 Bwahaha powergrid works!
The particle beam folding back on itself, like you can see in this screenshot just below the center of the wall, indicates that the current flowing between those octahedra just switched direction, i.e. that the power is sloshing back and forth. I tried to catch one of the wooden octahedra overvolting, but the spark that creates (I decided against explosions for now) vanished too quickly for F2 to capture.
You can't see it in this still image, but the beams are moving in different directions.
Next up: Some more graphical trickery to make the actual current visible, rather than just the direction it's flowing.