I know NPC's had infinite powercores, yes. Problem is that their weapons have no sort of limitation built to in and are therefore broken. What I exactly refer to are my flashbacks concerning 4.85 Gallic NPC's that chainfired SNAC's ad infinum which exemplify the infinite powercore problem of the NPC squads.
First fight, I've been trying to dip my cruiser into max range of my weapons to be able to take potshots before thrusting the hell out of there. Each time taking massive damage and staying afloat only thanks to repair ship. I got unlucky and blasted away. Second fight, my gunboat was woefully incapable of countering any of the NPC assortment. The only ship that could be considered balanced for this encounter are perhaps a fighter (arguable, depending on how fast those beams really are) and then I would not be able to do anything to begin with besides dodging. That or logging a battleship which has range and hull to not instantly die.