in game power management

[Froyd]

I find it frustrating fighting continual power failures. Power demands increase while power supplies stay the same. I need a grid/smart view, overhead view to see which machines need fuel and total draw vs supply.

[Wolfgang]

You can see that on literally any power pole connected to the grid.

If your power fails all the time then either you are not making enough power or your power generators start idling. Both can be pretty easily resolved.

[Suzaku]

Power supplies do increase. You either unlock better generators (coal, fuel, nuclear), or faster belts/larger pipes (more resources from the same amount of sources), or improved fuels (compact coal, turbofuel).

Don't stop at making enough power for your current demands. Go overboard so it doesn't become a concern until you're literally moving on to the next entire tier.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Why? You can already see the maximum potential power draw by looking at any power pole. You just need to make sure you're generating more grid capacity than this. So long as every generator's fuel system is setup properly, you'll never have to worry about failures.

[Staquix]

All of the above.
Also depending on level you can set up battery's to act as a buffer.

[Veeshan]

I've actually found the reverse, that early game Power is actually a concern, but as soon as you get oil it's just over. By the time I got batteries they were just a fun toy.

[Ragnaman]

20 some batteries have eliminated any power troubles for me at my current stage of the game. The capacity they have is just simply unreal, but convenient
You get batteries early, plop down 5 right away and say goodbye to brownouts.
Not to mention that coal power plants always work at 100% no matter what is your power demand, so the extra energy you are not storing goes to waste.

[Illuminia]

In case you weren't already - it's heavily suggested that you connect your power lines together into a single "power gird". That way you can look at any power pole and see your entire network's power consumption and generation.
.... and then it's just a question of building more power total than your machines would consume if they were all running at the same time.

Once you first unlock Coal Generators - the easier solution is to just build way more power production than you need. A good 8 or 16 Coal Generators running stable may carry you until you can unlock Oil/Fuel. (If not, build even more.)

Power Storage units, once unlocked, can provide some buffer..... but again best advice is to just build more Coal/Fuel power generators.

[Stress Tensor]

As has been mentioned before on other threads I'm sure, a cool QoL feature would be some sort of graphical view of the entire power network (maybe on the map?) where the named power switches would be visible. Ideally, although not consistently in practice, I like to have each factory connected to the grid with its own switch. On the rare occasion where I have or am on the verge of having a power shortfall, I could look at the map and decide which factory to switch off until I can build up more power generation. A more important use, once power generation becomes a non-issue, could be to show -- remotely -- which factories are efficient/balanced by showing their local consumption graphs isolated from the rest of the grid.

[Huren Ogeko]

isnt the power graph on every single power pole and even every single switch what people are asking for here? Otherwise I must be missing something.

for me personally I just run my entire power network as one connected power grid and only need switches for remote controlling fa`r off things like miners that feed one particular factory saving me from having to run out to each one if I want to empty the lines of the factory. I take the policy of have way more power then I need at any given time and have backup biomass/batteries just in case I screw up. But I never really find myself in a situation where I need to segment my power grid to get things running or keep them running once I move beyond biomass.
During my biomass phase I am very minimalist and focused on what I need to get coal going.


Back on topic though the power poles as well as the power generators when clicked on have a nice graph that can show you the status of that power grid including max consumers vs max production to help you figure out when you are running into risky territory. I can only assume you want to see remote power grid info that you might not be near. I know some mods can help with that but I have little experience due to the unified way I run my grids.

[Stress Tensor]

Originally posted by Huren Ogeko:

isnt the power graph on every single power pole and even every single switch what people are asking for here? Otherwise I must be missing something.

for me personally I just run my entire power network as one connected power grid and only need switches for remote controlling fa`r off things like miners that feed one particular factory saving me from having to run out to each one if I want to empty the lines of the factory. I take the policy of have way more power then I need at any given time and have backup biomass/batteries just in case I screw up. But I never really find myself in a situation where I need to segment my power grid to get things running or keep them running once I move beyond biomass.
During my biomass phase I am very minimalist and focused on what I need to get coal going.


Back on topic though the power poles as well as the power generators when clicked on have a nice graph that can show you the status of that power grid including max consumers vs max production to help you figure out when you are running into risky territory. I can only assume you want to see remote power grid info that you might not be near. I know some mods can help with that but I have little experience due to the unified way I run my grids.

Well the point of my post just above yours was something different. I was suggesting the capability to remotely control the switches and also to remotely view the power graphs of the factory sides of the switches (as if in the off/disconnected state) instead of the grid as a whole. This would eliminate any need to run around to all the far flung factories to do this.

Edit: I see that in my earlier post i mentioned only remote viewing of the switches (i.e. isolated to the factory-side of the switch) but not remote control. I meant to suggest the remote control aspect as well.

[Huren Ogeko]

That was what I was wondering about your earlier post. I knew there had to be a but more to it. I like the idea of remote control of things and there is something of a mod that does that bit it would be nice to have vanilla support for a power control station where you can remote control something like that. One idea I thought of was a portable tablet like thing we can carry with us that does what you describe as well as gather status info on machines and many other things. Now as to if we will see this in game...I doubt it but it would be a nice addition to see info from remote parts of the map without having to visit them.

[Dreusyla Arashi]

build all your generators in the same spot and fuel them at the same time problem solved..

[Huren Ogeko]

That doesnt always work. I prefer to put generators near the fuel sources. So my coal plants are near water/coal. my fuel generators are near the oil. and well nuclear given there is only a couple nodes I will probably put in a central spot between the nodes somewhere where I am going to be making the fuel rods.

This whole thing is just a minor QoL thing that will be nice but I dont think is high on the devs priority list right now...or who knows maybe they will slide it into the next update.
For now though using power poles works for me as I run a unified power network. but having remote monitoring of other things in far flung factories including remote controlling power switches will not be unwelcomed.

[Veeshan]

Originally posted by Huren Ogeko:

That doesnt always work. I prefer to put generators near the fuel sources. So my coal plants are near water/coal. my fuel generators are near the oil. and well nuclear given there is only a couple nodes I will probably put in a central spot between the nodes somewhere where I am going to be making the fuel rods.

This whole thing is just a minor QoL thing that will be nice but I dont think is high on the devs priority list right now...or who knows maybe they will slide it into the next update.
For now though using power poles works for me as I run a unified power network. but having remote monitoring of other things in far flung factories including remote controlling power switches will not be unwelcomed.

I kinda DO have remote control power switches... but only because I deliberately route all power sources back to a central hub before linking. Lots of trouble but when power blows you can just take a death and flip some switches and you're back in business.

[Huren Ogeko]

I can see the logic in that.