What is the Maximum Power Output of NEPTUNE?

The NEPTUNE cabled observatory commenced operations in 2009 as the world's first regional-scale seafloor infrastructure providing long-term continuous power and data connectivity for ocean instrumentation. The observatory's power system was designed for resiliency to faults and with sufficient capacity to allow expansion to new locations with higher power loads. In its lifetime there has been a steady increase in quantities of oceanographic instrumentation, but these devices are typically designed to consume minimal power. The impacts of a concentrated power load are not well understood because the observatory has historically only used small fraction of available power, and because the network is not a trivial linear DC circuit. The Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment project (P-ONE) proposes adding a neutrino detector to the observatory which will create substantial power demands at one instrumented site. This paper investigates the theoretical power limit for P-ONE and the stability impact on NEPTUNE by exploring systemic failure mechanisms.