Can't use Switch

[Dopey Shepard]

I need help automating Coal Plants (if it's even possible). I place Switch literally next to Jumbo battery and connect them with wire, but I turn it on and off, and nothing happens. How am I supposed to save power at night with coal plants running at full capacity wasting my power and coal?

[Hedning]

The jumbo battery doesn't make a signal. A switch is a thing you can flip manually to turn things off.

A smart battery will send a signal. It has a port for the automation wire to connect to. Using a smart battery you can set when to turn off and on your coal generator by taking an automation wire (different from power wire) from the smart battery all the way to the coal generator and then changing the settings on the battery.

Alternatively if you don't have smart batteries the coal generator has a setting to not fill it with more fuel if batteries on the network is above the setting. You need 5-7 jumbo batteries to hold a full coal fuel meter, so build about 7 jumbo batteries and set your coal power plant to not request fuel if batteries have more than 20% charge. This does not require any automation at all.

[Elidrin]

:) For what you want to do move the switch to turn on and off the generators and TRANSFORMERS.

It's very low tech but should work. Smart batteries are easier and not very high up the tech tree.

[Illuminia]

Switches stop power from flowing down the line, so it would stop any machines from PULLING power across an "Off" switch...
The Coal Generators are PUSHING power down the line though - so those can run even if nothing is consuming or storing the power they generate.

If you want to switch it manually - You can use the switch under the Automation tab, together with Automation Wiring leading to the Coal Generator(s) if you want the manual ability to turn them on or off ... (works with many other things too, like the Airlock doors).

However, what Hedning said using a Smart Battery + Automation Wiring is a better bet.
You have all your Smart Batteries hook up to receive power from your generators, then you only need to hook a single Smart Battery up with Automation Wiring to your Coal Generator(s).
You can set it to turn on when the battery to gets to a "low" amount of your choosing, and stop when it gets to a "high" value of your choosing.