Can someone explain to me how powerlines work?

[Zadok_m]

I've been able to create some pretty big cities without them but whenever I start new games I always have an issue with power for a little while. The noise pollution and cost of the wind turbines are a bit of an issue early on. Coal power plants also have a similar issue cause they cost more. Ive never figured out how to get the regular power lines to work so can anyboyd explain to me?

[grapplehoeker]

Power lines should be used to link the power source to your buildings. The blue highlighted area shows the coverage. The power lines only have to touch the blue area to connect to it. Once a building is connected it will act as a power conductor itself and power will spread from building to building as long as they are within range. So, you don't need many power lines at all.

[Zadok_m]

So basically whenever theres a building or anything I should just put a power line around the perimeter of it as well as the buildings beside it? I've tried just keeping the power lines inside the blue electricity field but it hasnt given any additional power

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Zadok_m:

So basically whenever theres a building or anything I should just put a power line around the perimeter of it as well as the buildings beside it? I've tried just keeping the power lines inside the blue electricity field but it hasnt given any additional power

The powerlines only have to touch the blue highlighted area at any point. You do not have to surround a building and you get no increase in power at any time due to more power lines.
You can see here I used just 3 pylons to connect the northern wind turbine to the buildings and then power was transferred throughout the city by the buildings themselves. In this image I was about to link the southern turbine to the northern one with a powerline. Once I later expand the city southwards, that line would be removed.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422067389
This comes from my guide which you may find useful ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422074590