Balancing coal power grid ruined the game for me.

[Tommy]

The game was fun for me till coal. I tried to set up coal power grid, but it never worked (at least not for long). I read various tutorials, but there was always some problem. Guess I'm too dumb to enjoy the game from coal onwards.

PS
I don't understand how come coal generator is - according to Satisfactory Wiki - „the first fully automate-able power source the player has access to" if player still needs biomass to run miners, water extractors, pipeline pumps etc.

[Profilename]

I got nothing but coal generators and everything runs on them.. mixing water and coal together is really all you need to do but the water needs many pumps if there is elevation and also if it shuts down you need more power just like the biomass burner does, just keep your biomass burner up and build a couple of coal generators

[DaTank]

Coal is something you have to put a little effort in to starting before it becomes fully automated.

Remember that a coal plant requires 45m3 and a water extractor provides 120m3 and a pipe can only hold 300 m3.

So you can put 6 Coal generators on 2 water extractors that have been OC'd to 125% each. Just a suggestion.

[CrazyOdd]

Originally posted by tomasz_jedralski:

I don't understand how come coal generator is - according to Satisfactory Wiki - „the first fully automate-able power source the player has access to" if player still needs biomass to run miners, water extractors, pipeline pumps etc.

Simple, everyone run power poles everywhere.

[Evilsod]

What's not to understand about that statement?

Whether or not you still need to use Biomass in certain situations, that statement is still 100% accurate. Coal is the first automated power source. You set it up, then ignore it until you overpower your grid and trip it.

[VeraelHasta]

If you don't need to optimize everything:
8 coal generators
Mk2 belt of Coal (120 pieces/min)
4 water generators - one water gen for 2 coal gen. Set them to 75% efficiency

If you don't need so much at start you can go with 4 gens, Mk1 belt and 2 water generators.

Make sure to turn them on one by one, Water generators use a lot of power at the beginning.

And no, you don't need biofuel. Power poles are extremely cheap, just run a line of them to each outpost you need power in. And have 1 big power grid. Make smaller grids only when it is necessery and you want to have separate power there.

[GamePil]

Originally posted by tomasz_jedralski:

I don't understand how come coal generator is - according to Satisfactory Wiki - „the first fully automate-able power source the player has access to" if player still needs biomass to run miners, water extractors, pipeline pumps etc.

You don't need biomass. My entire base runs on coal. Just have the power from the generators also run the miners, water pumps and headway pumps
There is no way to mess up coal generators. They run on endless automatable resources

[Enorats]

Coal is stupid easy. Drop a coal plant down. Drop a water extractor, anywhere it lets you build it is fine. Route coal to your coal plant. Same with water. Hook wires to everything, then add in a biomass generator to power up the water extractor and coal mine. Once the coal + water reaches the coal generator the biomass generator can go away forever, as the coal plant powers everything now.

Keep in mind that coal plants lower production to match need. That also lowers resource usage, so they use less water and coal at 50% than they do at 100% usage. If you're able to generate 200 MW of power but only use 100 MW, your plants may run fine. At 180 MW you might find that they run out of water or coal because you didn't give them enough to run at max.

They need 45 water a minute at max, and water extractors make 120. They also can only pump water 10 meters up without additional dedicated pumps in the system. Rarely an issue if you build your coal plants at sea level/water level.

[Vault Traveler]

I was building pipelines and pumps for 3 hours until I finally got that coal running it was amazing. I could join your game and take a look if you want?

[Zara]

Originally posted by tomasz_jedralski:

The game was fun for me till coal. I tried to set up coal power grid, but it never worked (at least not for long). I read various tutorials, but there was always some problem. Guess I'm too dumb to enjoy the game from coal onwards.

PS
I don't understand how come coal generator is - according to Satisfactory Wiki - „the first fully automate-able power source the player has access to" if player still needs biomass to run miners, water extractors, pipeline pumps etc.

The thing is, you only need the biomass generators in order to get started, so that water gets pumped into the coal generators, then once there is water in the coal generators, you can take down your biomass generators (assuming you're creating enough power from the coal generators), and the coal will then be fully automated, assuming of course you have the correct ratios, and thus don't run out of water or coal.


I'm guessing you overlooked something (probably something small, we all do it). I wouldn't give up just yet. Start by going over each section of it one piece at a time. I'll assume you already have the coal generators placed, so start with the Water Extractors.

There is one common ratio for perfect water that I know of: 2 Water extractors set at 75% (assuming you have found and fed a green power slug into the M.A.M., then did the Overclocking research in that same M.A.M tree, you can open the water extractor and drag the overclock bar to the left until it is set at 75%) will perfectly feed 4 coal generators, and save you a bit of power over running them at 100%. This can also be expanded to 3 Water Extractors at 75% and 6 Coal Generators. If you need more than 6 Coal Generators (which wouldn't surprise me), then you need to make a new set of pipes for the additional sets (so keep them in sets of 3 water/6 coal with separate piping)

After setting your water extractors, get the piping setup in such a way as the 2-3 water extractors feed into a single pipe. At this point I like to run that pipe down my line of Coal Generators. Keep in mind with pipes that if you need to go up much, you'll likely need a pump (maybe more depending on how far up you need to go) on the pipe, and make sure the pump 1) is facing in the right direction when you put it on the pipe (there will be three green arrows in the flow direction), and 2) you need to power the pump.


Now that you have your water situation theoretically figured out, and plugged into the coal generators, you need to check your coal. Assuming you're using mk.1 miners, an impure coal will generate 30 coal per min, a normal 60, and a pure 120. Each generator needs 15 coal per minute, so an impure can feed 2 generators, a normal 4, and a pure 8. These numbers are all doubled once you get mk. 2 miners, and of course can be increased via overclocking. I'll give an example though based on the assumption you've found a nice juicy pure coal vein.

First things first, place a splitter as close to the miner as you can, and connect that splitter to the miner with a mk 2 belt. Obviously you use this so that the 120 per min can actually get to the splitter without issue. Now from that splitter you take two lines, and you split them again. From those two split lines, you'll have a total of 6 lines that will each have 15 coal per minute on them, and only need to be mk. 1 belts. Feed these 6 lines into your Coal Generators, and that's that.


Once you've done all of that, or double checked it rather, make sure all of your generators, your miner, your water extractors, and any pumps you have are all wired together. Now you can either connect it to your main power running from your base, or you can plop down 2-4 biomass generators and add them to the coal's power lines. You won't need much fuel in order to get the process going, only maybe 5-10 biomass per generator, if that. Once the coal generators get coal from the miner, and water from the water extractors, they'll automatically turn on, and at that point you should be able to remove the biomass generators, and there you go, coal power.



I know you didn't ask for another guide since you looked at others, but too bad :D

[Dragorin]

this is my 2nd array, coal is not hard, check the wiki for what you need to support. Basically on a 120 line of coal I've got 8 generators being supported by 3 water extractors running at 100%, note how one extractor is added down the water line. This area could easily support another 3 setups with belt and miner upgrades.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2130649163

More Power!!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2142183367

Edit for updated screen shot of STABLE coal power plants.

[The Big Brzezinski]

It's pretty simple. Place coal generators in groups of three next to a water extractor, and truck coal to them with tractors. Remember to split off a conveyor from the truck station's output into its refueling tank. Boom, you've got an entirely self-sustaining power source. Lay power poles off to wherever you need power.

Keep an eye on those tractors, though. They get into shenanigans sometimes.

[Gorby]

Originally posted by tomasz_jedralski:

The game was fun for me till coal. I tried to set up coal power grid, but it never worked (at least not for long).

If it worked at all at some point then the problem is probably with your water pumping setup.

[Justincrediballs]

The only reason you would run into problems on even the most basic (1 miner, 1 or 2 gens, 1 water pump) plant is if you use too much power. This may seem much, but I have a running tally of how much power draw my entire circuit would use if it all turned on, I never go above what's being supplied. Sure, that means that a lot of times I'm producing a LOT more power than I'm using, but that's better than having to use biofuel to restart your pumps.

Another trick I use later in the game (I rely on coal almost exclusively because it's easy to setup and maintain and there's LOTS of coal) is I keep my pumps on a separate circuit connected to a Geothermal pump, then with a single connection to the rest of the grid. If I ever screw up and trip my fuse, I just disconnect that single power cable and the pumps start right up to get the system going again.

[Tommy]

Thanks for all kind replies (especially Zara). I'm trying to implement them.

Originally posted by Enorats:

Coal is stupid easy. Drop a coal plant down. Drop a water extractor, anywhere it lets you build it is fine. Route coal to your coal plant. Same with water. Hook wires to everything, then add in a biomass generator to power up the water extractor and coal mine. Once the coal + water reaches the coal generator the biomass generator can go away forever, as the coal plant powers everything now.

I did just that, but the generator stopped after a while.

Originally posted by Gorby:

If it worked at all at some point then the problem is probably with your water pumping setup.

I got one water extractor with pump connected to one coal generator built above the level of extractor.

Originally posted by Justincrediballs:

The only reason you would run into problems on even the most basic (1 miner, 1 or 2 gens, 1 water pump) plant is if you use too much power.

I tried with very little power (connected generator to a single building) and still generator stops working after some time.

Thanks once more everybody. I'm pretty sure I'll try to solve the problem eventually. It's a very nice game after all.

[Mungrel]

I've been having a heap of fun with the coal burners lately. For me, I've got a coal generator powering a single water extractor and 2 x coal miners. This is independent to the rest of my factory's power grid. This way I always have coal feeding to all of my power stations regardless of if I overload my factory grid.

Then, closer to the base I have another 2 coal power stations powering 5 x water extractors and various pumps, 1 extractor supplies water solely to the 2 x coal stations, the rest are plumbed to the 8 or 9 stations powering the rest of my factory. Coal is fed from the 2 x Mk2 miners at the first location.

All conveyors are Mk3 and I have 2 runs of piping leading from the 4 water extractors to the row of coal power plants

So theoretically I should have limitless supply of water and coal to all coal power stations and overloading my main grid shouldn't affect my water and coal extractor setups. (which so far has been evident)

FWIW I do have a single biomass burner currently not connected to anything. This way if for whatever reason I can connect that up to one water extractor that feeds my 2 x coal burners should I need to "prime" the system. So far has been working very well

I've just reached tier 5 on the weekend.

I guess the TLDR is keep your water extractors, water pumps and coal mines that feed your coal power stations on a separate grid (powered by another coal generator) to the rest of the factory and that's how they become autonomous.