Flow rate fluctuates; Power production suffers

[Fenris567]

I'm currently working on a coal-based power plant, and I can't seem to manage my flow rates properly. I plan to have 80 generators hooked up to four miners and twelve extractors, which will be fully overclocked. I have half of the generators hooked up, and, although I've triple checked every step of the pipelines, my flow rates continue to fall far below their expected amounts, causing generators to switch on and off and seemingly random intervals. I am using buffers on every line, and there are valves controlling flow into each generator. I have screenshots of the plant and my power chart on my profile. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/yoyoitsapplejacksandbeans/screenshots/

[Huperspace]

are you sure you done you math correct? mk1 pipe can only support 1x 250% extractor, which can only support 6.6 non OC power plants.
you need 4x 250% mk2 miners on normal nodes for 80 CPPs, which need mk4 belt to output the 300/min each.

[Fenris567]

Originally posted by Huperspace:

are you sure you done you math correct? mk1 pipe can only support 1x 250% extractor, which can only support 6.6 non OC power plants.
you need 4x 250% mk2 miners on normal nodes for 80 CPPs, which need mk4 belt to output the 300/min each.

Yes I've used mark 2 pipes for each major line, and mark 4 conveyors where they are necessary.

[deerod]

It seems I might have run into a similar problem. My power supply consists of 32 coal generators plus 20 fuel generators (5400 MW overall), maximum possible consumption is about 4900 MW. The power setup has been running for dozens of hours, and whenever I looked at the power grid values the full 5400 MW were produced. Now I just finished my first aluminium production (consumption is included in the 4900 MW), and everything was running smoothly for a while. Then power broke down. The grid diagram shows that 5400 MW were produced for some time, then the line starts going down in an irregular wavy pattern until it hits actual comsumption (maybe 4100 MW or so) - bang!
Now whenever I load a recent save file (with the aluminium site running) this happens after about a minute or two. I haven't tried older saves yet because I feel somewhat paralyzed... :(

Anyway, the only explanation I could think of was some problem with water (or fuel) flow calculation. Yesterday I heard something about "transport rates not being deterministic" because they are calculated on a per-frame basis. I think a dev said (on youtube) that at low frame rates belt transport and fluid flow rates also go down.
I don't know about my exact frame rate, but I wouldn't be surprised if it averaged well below 60Hz...

[Fenris567]

Originally posted by deerod:

It seems I might have run into a similar problem. My power supply consists of 32 coal generators plus 20 fuel generators (5400 MW overall), maximum possible consumption is about 4900 MW. The power setup has been running for dozens of hours, and whenever I looked at the power grid values the full 5400 MW were produced. Now I just finished my first aluminium production (consumption is included in the 4900 MW), and everything was running smoothly for a while. Then power broke down. The grid diagram shows that 5400 MW were produced for some time, then the line starts going down in an irregular wavy pattern until it hits actual comsumption (maybe 4100 MW or so) - bang!
Now whenever I load a recent save file (with the aluminium site running) this happens after about a minute or two. I haven't tried older saves yet because I feel somewhat paralyzed... :(

Anyway, the only explanation I could think of was some problem with water (or fuel) flow calculation. Yesterday I heard something about "transport rates not being deterministic" because they are calculated on a per-frame basis. I think a dev said (on youtube) that at low frame rates belt transport and fluid flow rates also go down.
I don't know about my exact frame rate, but I wouldn't be surprised if it averaged well below 60Hz...

That does sound very similar to the problem I'm having. However, power outages like those can be prevented with an array of power storage units. They've saved my rear more times than I care to contemplate. Thanks for affirming my concern on this issue.

[deerod]

Originally posted by Fenris567:

However, power outages like those can be prevented with an array of power storage units.

Maybe, but it shouldn't happen in the first place. After all there's nothing wrong with the power setup, it just doesn't work as specified. Or rather: it did work as specified for a long time and then stopped doing so for no "real" in-game reason.