My power keeps shutting down (too much power?)

[El Patron]

My power keeps shutting down. Despite the fact I have built 3 coal generators. It says I can produce 300Mw now, but my consuption max is 172Mw. But it keeps shutting down anyway. I put the fuse back on, but after few minutes its down again. So I quess there is a limit for a circuit? If its so, how many megawatts can stream in one circuit? But I only guess this is the issue.

[Suzaku]

You can push unlimited power through your circuits. The problem is most likely not enough supply to your generators. They likely run out of materials, turn off for a moment which causes your power to dip low enough to trip the breaker, and then the supplies still left on the belts/pipes partially refills the gens while you head back to turn them back on.

Make sure you're supplying enough resources to your gens. Each coal generator is 15 coal/min and 45 water/min. Make sure your belts and pipes aren't bottlenecking your supply.

[Taco Cat]

There is no Limit.

If you really are under the max available production the only other options are:

1) Not enough coal
2) Not enough water
If one of these happen 1 or more coal plants shut down and fuse flips

[senoufo]

One Coal Generator produces 75 MW at 100% clock speed.

[Wolfgang]

3 coal generators can only produce 225MW. You need 4 to reach 300MW.
With 3 coal generators you need to supply them with 45 coal/min and 135 water/min in sum.

As said above the generators are very likely running out of water or coal (or both).

[El Patron]

Damn it. Maybe you are right. And I just built completely new power grid to keep separated circuits. There is one generator overclocked by 200%. Maybe that one eats coal and water for all 3? But if its so, it should generate enough power by itself hmmm. I must go to check it out. Its very far from my base (I built generators close to water. because I play on the world Mars look alike and there is not much water). Thanks guys for your tips and hints.

[Bobucles]

Power plant overclock UI lies, the 250% overclock gives 2x performance.
Adjust accordingly.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Peacemaker:

Damn it. Maybe you are right. And I just built completely new power grid to keep separated circuits. There is one generator overclocked by 200%. Maybe that one eats coal and water for all 3? But if its so, it should generate enough power by itself hmmm. I must go to check it out. Its very far from my base (I built generators close to water. because I play on the world Mars look alike and there is not much water). Thanks guys for your tips and hints.

Don't go with the target MW value. It is wrong. Go with the MW value that is stated on the display where the fuel is shown. For a 2x consumption you need about 248% clock rate (exact value can be found in the wiki).

[El Patron]

Ok. I have found the problem. Water is the problem. My pump cant produce enough water anymore. But I dont have a clue why. I have tried to overclock it by 200%, but didnt help. Can it lower a water level and there is not enough water anymore or something?

[Suzaku]

Pumps always produce a consistent amount of water. The problem might be either bottlenecking (trying to push too much water through a single pipe), or or headlift (water can only go a certain distance higher than the source; use pipeline pumps to reset your headlift to allow greater vertical travel). If headlift is the problem, consider building your generators at the water source so there's no need to bother with it. Then simply transport the coal to the gens since they're far simpler to manage.

[Bobucles]

Fluid physics are all about headlift. Think of it as an invisible line above the pump, where water will no longer pass. Each new pump creates a new line above it. Buffer tanks delete the line, except when they are completely full.

A water pump can only lift water roughly up to the middle of the spinning wheel. It can be tricky to squeeze a coal plant with so little room to spare, so it's normal to use at least one pump to get things set up.

[El Patron]

Well, as it turned out, the overclocked generator caused this. I have decreased its oveclocking from 200% to 130% and there is enough water now for all 3 generators. And I have a question regarding this. Does water pump affect each other? I mean like, if I build another water pump next to existing one, shall it suffer from not enough pressure/water for both pumps?

[kLuns]

do you mean headliftpump or extractor? I'm confused. Don turn up the clock speed in the coal stage, it's much more rewarding turning the extractors under 100% and duplicating them. Get a 4th generator and make it run at 100%. Make 3 water extractors and underclock them to 50%. Now you saved some power and you get more power into your grid.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Peacemaker:

Well, as it turned out, the overclocked generator caused this. I have decreased its oveclocking from 200% to 130% and there is enough water now for all 3 generators. And I have a question regarding this. Does water pump affect each other? I mean like, if I build another water pump next to existing one, shall it suffer from not enough pressure/water for both pumps?

If you mean the extractor then no.
If you mean the actual pump then yes. Headlift is not added when two pipeline pumps very close together on a line. It is best to use the added headlift from one pump as much as possible (with some safety buffer) and then place another pump at that height if needed.

[El Patron]

I mean water extractor yes. So thats good news. I can build more of them close to each other on the lake, if it doesnt affect each other then.