Clarifications on Power Management

[Able Archer]

Hello!

I need a few clarifications on electrical. I have read a couple of the guides, and I think I understand it, for the most part, but a few things keep nagging at me that I didn't see explained (or missed it).

Game background
1. Realistic Mode, early game (just opened first town)
2. The overall problem I'm working on is the one where the voltage in some buildings is swinging wildly down to zero. It's in my water treatment block, which has 2 large pumps, 1 large well, and the Treatment Plant. There is also a Technical Services building on the same grid node. Calling this "the Water Block."
3. Currently all power is purchased through the same Customs House. Based on configuration, only 3 of the Medium Voltage (MV) terminals are available on that Customs House.
4. I'm only using Medium Voltage at this time.
5. Assume Max Capacity Above Ground Wires in all affected areas. (2.35MW capacity)

The Water Block is fluctuating. I had one substation, and it seems that should be enough by running the numbers. I ran a second substation, and it made no difference at all. Both substations came from the same Medium Voltage Switch. And, that switch was also powering a good portion of the town.

I think I know the answers to the below questions, but validation would be great.

Q1: Is Wattage limited to the "weakest link" in its associated grid? Meaning, if I start with a single MV switch, and break that out to other switches, and end up with 20 Substations--all connected through a single 2.35MW wire to the Customs House, the sum of wattage for those substations is maxed at 2.35, correct? (I do understand that power is not a constant draw--but ultimately, I'm only going to get 2.35MW at any particular time, no matter the substation count.

Q2: Is there a way to increase the through-put of a switch, by attaching 2 sources of MV? So, could I run 2 lines of 2.35MW to the same switch from Customs House? I don't guess you really gain anything here--each output would still be limited to 2.35MW, but you could have 2 coming off the same switch, if needed.

Q3: I'm presuming industrial demands are greater than those of a small-to-medium town. Prior to building your own power plant, do people tend to draw power from multiple CHs?

Q4: Is there a limit (other than resources) to the length of power lines from other Customs Houses? I'm feeling like a smart play may be to set up an HV switch near my settlement and run to a CH that I don't intend to use for a while.


Any other thoughts on power strategy greatly appreciated!

[Phoenix]

Q1: Yes. Everything, including wires has maximum capacity. For medium voltage wire it's 2.35 and you cannot transmit more than that through a single wire.

Q2. Yes. Attaching multiple sources will increase overall capacity, but you still have to split your customers into separate branches of wires as well.

Q3. Most probably, yes. Buying electircal power from neighbors is quite typical for beginning of games, since your own power plant is quite a significant investment. Plenty of foreign electrical connections have High Voltage output as well though which makes planning your network easier. So you can say you brought this hardships on yourself :-).

Q4. I don't think there's any limit. I've built plenty of long-ass electrical lines without any problems. But I don't have exact knowledge on that.

As for additional tips, I think transformer work both ways, so it might be useful to use it to convert several importing MV lines to HV first, and that might make your distribution situation way easier. Weirdly, I can't recall for sure if transformers really work both ways, so you might need to experiment on this.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q1: Is Wattage limited to the "weakest link" in its associated grid? Meaning, [...] correct?

Generally yes, but there may be other factors that further limit the power available through that line, especially if there are multiple power sources on the same grid.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q2: Is there a way to increase the through-put of a switch, by attaching 2 sources of MV? [...] if needed.

By default, all switches and transformers in the game cannot have more than 19 MW passing through them, except for priority switches, which do not have a limit beyond the number of connections they have. There are mods that allow more, but I cannot guarantee their reliability. Attaching more power lines to a switch/transformer lets you pull or push more power into/from a switch/transformer, up to the 19 MW limit.

Splitting out a high power line into two lower power lines and recombining them at another switch works fine, but connecting two power sources to the same switch/transformer can result in all sorts of problems if you don't know how the game assigns loading to multiple sources on the same grid.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q3: I'm presuming industrial demands are greater than those of a small-to-medium town. Prior to building your own power plant, do people tend to draw power from multiple CHs?

It really depends. In general, cargo stations with un/loading speed bonuses tend to have the highest power draws, and stuff like conveyor engines add up, but towns have stuff like water pumps and service buildings to power too. Electric vehicle networks can also eat up a lot of power too, especially if they make frequent stops.

I am not sure what you mean by "CH" (customs house?), but any power source connected to a grid will have loading assigned to it by a few rules. See here for more info on that.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q4: Is there a limit (other than resources) to the length of power lines from other Customs Houses? I'm feeling like a smart play may be to set up an HV switch near my settlement and run to a CH that I don't intend to use for a while.

Not really; underground power cables can only be built out to ~5 km, but all that means is you'll have to build them in two or more segments instead of one. Power lines do not seem to have a length limit (at least not out to 37+ km.), so you can build them as far as you want.

Again though, you need to know the rules the game uses to assign loading to power sources on the same grid if you want to connect power sources, and you need to connect power sources in a specific way to get them to work the way you want them to (equal share, back up, or prioritized).

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Any other thoughts on power strategy greatly appreciated!

Again, to get the most out of the power system in the game, you really need to learn how the game assigns loading to power sources. This lets you set up redundant power sources to avoid blackouts, to prioritize renewable/waste power over other power sources, and avoid issues that commonly happen with connected power sources. See here for more info on that.

Don't bother with renewable power unless you want to reduce fuel usage or pollution of power plants. Renewable power is just not reliable enough to work without a fueled power plant to cover for them and they cost too much to make money from selling electricity.

Also do not bother selling electricity from a nuclear power plant; the fuel is worth more.

[Able Archer]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

Q1: Yes. Everything, including wires has maximum capacity. For medium voltage wire it's 2.35 and you cannot transmit more than that through a single wire.

Q2. Yes. Attaching multiple sources will increase overall capacity, but you still have to split your customers into separate branches of wires as well.

Q3. Most probably, yes. Buying electircal power from neighbors is quite typical for beginning of games, since your own power plant is quite a significant investment. Plenty of foreign electrical connections have High Voltage output as well though which makes planning your network easier. So you can say you brought this hardships on yourself :-).

Q4. I don't think there's any limit. I've built plenty of long-ass electrical lines without any problems. But I don't have exact knowledge on that.

As for additional tips, I think transformer work both ways, so it might be useful to use it to convert several importing MV lines to HV first, and that might make your distribution situation way easier. Weirdly, I can't recall for sure if transformers really work both ways, so you might need to experiment on this.

Thanks, Phoenix. I think one thing that's confusing me is Voltage vs. Wattage. I know the book definitions (potential vs. active). But, I thought to "connect" the two, you also need to know amperage. I could be mistaken there, though. Either way, I'm not clear what the importance of voltage is, except that it tells me if a building is getting enough power.

Is wattage (from a game perspective) effectively, "this is how much I need to draw to keep voltage at maximum right this moment?" Thus, if I have a 2MW line, all of the buildings connected to it (assuming no other connections) need to add up to under 2MW. The voltage is inconsequential if I maintain a higher-throughput-than-draw.

Or is that way offbase?

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Either way, I'm not clear what the importance of voltage is, except that it tells me if a building is getting enough power.

Voltage is used for troubleshooting purposes, like whether a building is connected or if its power usage is being throttled due to insufficient supply.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Is wattage (from a game perspective) effectively, "this is how much I need to draw to keep voltage at maximum right this moment?" Thus, if I have a 2MW line, all of the buildings connected to it (assuming no other connections) need to add up to under 2MW. The voltage is inconsequential if I maintain a higher-throughput-than-draw.

For the most part, yes. Voltage in this game is essentially the number of MWh stored in the building, which helps to smooth out the spikes in power computed for each step of time. Wattage is how much power a building demands or is able to provide, so as long as you can supply more power than is demanded, voltage shouldn't be an issue.

[Able Archer]

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q1: Is Wattage limited to the "weakest link" in its associated grid? Meaning, [...] correct?

Generally yes, but there may be other factors that further limit the power available through that line, especially if there are multiple power sources on the same grid.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q2: Is there a way to increase the through-put of a switch, by attaching 2 sources of MV? [...] if needed.

By default, all switches and transformers in the game cannot have more than 19 MW passing through them, except for priority switches, which do not have a limit beyond the number of connections they have. There are mods that allow more, but I cannot guarantee their reliability. Attaching more power lines to a switch/transformer lets you pull or push more power into/from a switch/transformer, up to the 19 MW limit.

Splitting out a high power line into two lower power lines and recombining them at another switch works fine, but connecting two power sources to the same switch/transformer can result in all sorts of problems if you don't know how the game assigns loading to multiple sources on the same grid.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q3: I'm presuming industrial demands are greater than those of a small-to-medium town. Prior to building your own power plant, do people tend to draw power from multiple CHs?

It really depends. In general, cargo stations with un/loading speed bonuses tend to have the highest power draws, and stuff like conveyor engines add up, but towns have stuff like water pumps and service buildings to power too. Electric vehicle networks can also eat up a lot of power too, especially if they make frequent stops.

I am not sure what you mean by "CH" (customs house?), but any power source connected to a grid will have loading assigned to it by a few rules. See here for more info on that.

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Q4: Is there a limit (other than resources) to the length of power lines from other Customs Houses? I'm feeling like a smart play may be to set up an HV switch near my settlement and run to a CH that I don't intend to use for a while.

Not really; underground power cables can only be built out to ~5 km, but all that means is you'll have to build them in two or more segments instead of one. Power lines do not seem to have a length limit (at least not out to 37+ km.), so you can build them as far as you want.

Again though, you need to know the rules the game uses to assign loading to power sources on the same grid if you want to connect power sources, and you need to connect power sources in a specific way to get them to work the way you want them to (equal share, back up, or prioritized).

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Any other thoughts on power strategy greatly appreciated!

Again, to get the most out of the power system in the game, you really need to learn how the game assigns loading to power sources. This lets you set up redundant power sources to avoid blackouts, to prioritize renewable/waste power over other power sources, and avoid issues that commonly happen with connected power sources. See here for more info on that.

Don't bother with renewable power unless you want to reduce fuel usage or pollution of power plants. Renewable power is just not reliable enough to work without a fueled power plant to cover for them and they cost too much to make money from selling electricity.

Also do not bother selling electricity from a nuclear power plant; the fuel is worth more.

Thanks. I read (and re-read) your guide. Where I get tripped up is the "relationship" (if there is one) between voltage and wattage. I recall the old analogy that voltage is the amount of water in the pool; wattage is how quickly you fill up or drain that pool.

Am I right in thinking, if I am getting the fluctuating power problem at a water plant, it is likely that I'm exceeding the wattage throughput of a node somewhere in that stem?

(Currently I do not "mix" my power sources--that is, I run a line, and split that line with switches, but I'm not running lines between switches with different originating sources.)

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Is wattage (from a game perspective) effectively, "this is how much I need to draw to keep voltage at maximum right this moment?" Thus, if I have a 2MW line, all of the buildings connected to it (assuming no other connections) need to add up to under 2MW. The voltage is inconsequential if I maintain a higher-throughput-than-draw.

Or is that way offbase?

Yes, from user's perspective that's pretty much it. You understood it correctly. Basically you don't have to really think about voltage at all (as well as about max. power consumption per day, aka MWh). Every building, wire etc. has Max. Wattage statistics (in MW). That's maximum power consumption per second. Adding them up will give you total consumption per second which you can compare to corresponding wattage of wires/switches/power plants etc. Exceeding this wattage could lead to problems.

Max. wattage is maximum consumption though. Buildings in any given group don't usually use maximum amount of power all the day around, or even simultaneously. So, practically, you usually can get away with connecting a group of building with total max wattage somewhat exceeding 2.35 MW to a single substation, etc. But that's a calculated risk that's on you.

[bspawn]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

Thanks, Phoenix. I think one thing that's confusing me is Voltage vs. Wattage. I know the book definitions (potential vs. active).

If Voltage is like water pressure, Wattage (power) is more like liters per second.
(power over a given mount of time is energy: WattHours).

But, I thought to "connect" the two, you also need to know amperage.

Watts=Volts*Amperes. You only need to know two of those to calculate the other: Amps=Watts/Volts.
So at a given voltage, a specific Wattage implies a specific Amperage and vice-versa. In that sense *at a given voltage*, Wattage and Amperage are equivalent.

Is wattage (from a game perspective) effectively, "this is how much I need to draw to keep voltage at maximum right this moment?"

"need to draw" in sense of "need to not draw more than the maximum". If the maximum is exceeded, voltage will drop and consequently the delivered wattage will drop, so the connected buildings get insufficient electric power.