Small city, no coal, big problem

[bear]

City of only about seven thousand which has no problems with traffic. Near the highway entrance are the two coal power plants. They're now short on coal and under-performing. Any ideas on what the problem is, and how to fix it? There's no one-way system in action and I've tried moving one plant to the other side of the highway.

[MessengerOfRage]

how far from the map edge is your highway entrance.
If the Higway is long because it snakes through the terrain instead of going in a straight line it might be that the delivery trucks take a long time to arrive.
giving them faster ways ti import like a cargo station nearby can help.

You can click on a powerplant and in it's info panel click on the blue traffic routes button.
Now you can see all vehicles heading to that powerplant and the streets they will take.
Check those vehicles if deliveries are on their way.

A screenshot of that area might help us if it's not what I mention above.

[bear]

It's a twisty connection, but short.
https://imgur.com/hU5xQID

[MarkJohnson]

Do you have local oil specialization district? Maybe it is coming from there and has issues?

How is you outside connections overlay looking. Is there any oil coming in and not stopping and going to other places?

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Do you have local oil specialization district? Maybe it is coming from there and has issues?

How is you outside connections overlay looking. Is there any oil coming in and not stopping and going to other places?

Oil? ;p

@OP Build some specialised industry over a mineral deposit and provide your coal plants with your own coal.

[MessengerOfRage]

in addition to checking the outside connections / imports info view like Mark said you can also:

click on the complaining building to open its info panel.
click on the blue traffic routes button in the info panel, you can now see all vehicles heading to that building and the path they will take.
look for brown lines, those are the paths of the trucks. follow the brown lines to their end and check on those trucks:
what are they doing? look for delivering trucks.
who owns the delivery truck? does it come from one of your buildings or from an outside connection?
which way does it want to take?
that way you can find reasons why deliveries take to long (but are still on their way). and work on that.

... if there are no trucks heading to the building, well maybe your road network is broken...
try do do a busline from the other side of the highway to the power plant in a way that the bus has to use the interchange-bridge.
impossible? = something is broken.
possible, check all lanes on that interchange that a truck from outside should use when driving to the power plant.

try to run this mod:
it looks for broken nodes and fixes them:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1777173984

if all that doesn't help maybe the power plants driveway is broken, did you move them around with move it! mod?
click on them and use the vanilla games move building function to place them in the same spot, this resets their road connection.
(in game move building costs monexy so if you are playing with limited money I would do all the free steps first, but if you use unlimited money try the move building function first as it is the fastest to do.)

[Mr. Monday]

You don't have an one-way road facing the wrong direction in there do you?

[bear]

Thanks for the replies and ideas people. As the city is only two 'zones' at the moment I don't have access to any of my own resources, so am reliant upon import. Through playing about I've discovered that there is no problem with the roads - coal does eventually get brought along the highway to one of the plants. Unfortunately I've burned through 60 grand and gone utterly bankrupt by then so it's a bit pointless. I'm going to get another city up and running and see if the same thing happens. It might be a mod (though I'm fairly conservative with them) or perhaps the map I used (though it's a standard one from Paradox).

[Mr. Monday]

Originally posted by bear:

Thanks for the replies and ideas people. As the city is only two 'zones' at the moment I don't have access to any of my own resources, so am reliant upon import. Through playing about I've discovered that there is no problem with the roads - coal does eventually get brought along the highway to one of the plants. Unfortunately I've burned through 60 grand and gone utterly bankrupt by then so it's a bit pointless. I'm going to get another city up and running and see if the same thing happens. It might be a mod (though I'm fairly conservative with them) or perhaps the map I used (though it's a standard one from Paradox).

Hang on a sec. What's the problem with the roads?

[bear]

There was no problem with roads. I changed around the junction and moved the power station but essentially it makes no difference. The coal just takes forever to arrive.

[tulle040657]

Originally posted by bear:

Thanks for the replies and ideas people. As the city is only two 'zones' at the moment I don't have access to any of my own resources, so am reliant upon import. Through playing about I've discovered that there is no problem with the roads - coal does eventually get brought along the highway to one of the plants. Unfortunately I've burned through 60 grand and gone utterly bankrupt by then so it's a bit pointless. I'm going to get another city up and running and see if the same thing happens. It might be a mod (though I'm fairly conservative with them) or perhaps the map I used (though it's a standard one from Paradox).

Back in 2018 my electric company decommissioned the big coal plant, why?

Did they say because of pollution? No
Was it not efficient enough? No

They said they tore it down because it was not "cost effective" to run

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by bear:

Thanks for the replies and ideas people. As the city is only two 'zones' at the moment I don't have access to any of my own resources, so am reliant upon import.

If you use the Extra Landscaping Tools mod then you can paint your own resource area. Note there is also a game setting for infinite resource, otherwise you will run out/have to keep re-painting it !!

[exculcator]

Do you realise that coal power plants are powered by zoned (i.e. non Industries DLC) ore industries goods? You don't have to import any coal if you mine your own. You will need at least one (zoned ore industries) extractor and at least one (zoned ore industries) processor to do. It is highly advisable to set up at least one (Industries DLC) warehouse next to each coal-fired power plant that stores the zoned ore industries finished goods as well.

[wilky]

Originally posted by bear:

There was no problem with roads. I changed around the junction and moved the power station but essentially it makes no difference. The coal just takes forever to arrive.

I have never had this issue before.

I usually start a new city with a coal power plant or two, and I place them reasonably close to my highway entrance, and the coal trucks drive straight there with no problems.

[bear]

Originally posted by wilky:

Originally posted by bear:

There was no problem with roads. I changed around the junction and moved the power station but essentially it makes no difference. The coal just takes forever to arrive.

I have never had this issue before either.

I usually start a new city with a coal power plant or two, and I place them reasonably close to my highway entrance, and the coal trucks drive straight there with no problems.

No, I've not the issue before either. I suspect it was something weird with the map. Likewise, I tend to use a combo of coal and wind until I can build a hydro dam.

Exculcator - yes, but the map doesn't have any ore nearby and I like to play the map 'as is' - that and with limited money - otherwise there's no boundaries and it's too easy.

[Avanya]

It sounds like the highway coming from the edge of the map to the power plant is too long for any truck to make it in time. If you have access to rail already, then you can build a cargo train station. That should hopefully import things faster, so deliveries make it in time before your power plant runs out.