How do you get Power Plants to last longer?

[bioduck42 0]

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong Category, but I'm new to Simtropolis. See, whenever I play my largest city (40,000 people) I always need 3 new power plants liek ever 2 minutes. Why does the capacity of the electricty dissapear so fast? Is it because I only have have 3 power plants in the city? PLEASE HELP! It's making the game unplayable.

[ewd76 2]

If you are building without adding power then you will run out. You might try a stronger power source.

[Stormscape 8]

Have you increased funding on the power plant? You shouldn't even need a 2nd power plant yet in a city of 40,000 unless it's all detached houses.

[Soccerman48 0]

you could cheat even though its lame and uneeded but do this to remove the power and water need

hit CTRL+X

a box will appear

type - fightthepower

hit CTRL+X

a box will appear

type - howdryiam

[gitrdone 0]

They're not wind power plants are they? and is 2 minutes an accurate measurement of time or is it exaggerated? because if you frequently need build new power plants then you may be running them to close to full capacity. However if it is literally every 2 minutes I don't know what the problem is.

[bioduck42 0]

Well, it's more like 5 minutes.I know I'm Running them to close to capacity, but how do I keep it from not using all the capacity up in like 5mins?

[gitrdone 0]

how much gameplay time before your power plants run out? i.e. how many days, months, years in gameplay before you loose power?

[Jezus53 18]

Try a few simple things. First, try running them at capacity, not above or below. Second, if you still need more power, then build a higher capacity power plant or more of them, it is strange that you need that many for a small city, but if it's what you need then it's what you need. Third, did you add any new power plants to the game from the STEX or anywhere else? Do those replace any existing power plants? If so, did you delete the power plant it replaced before putting it into the plugins folder? If so, then you are suffering from the phanto slider bug. Simply delete all power plants that you added to the game. Remove the building file, and then open the game. It should be fixed. But from what you are saying that does not seem to be the problem, but Ithought I should throw that out there. As said before, running at capacity deteriorates your power plant quicker than normal. And, if you are using wind poer plants, then build a lot of them. Better to have more than have to replace them all the time.

[tungston 19]

There are two possibilities, you have a faulty plugin that uses way too much power, or you might have contracted the phantom slider bug.

[bioduck42 0]

It's about 4-6 months before the electricitian guy comes up and says that power failures are imminent.

[bioduck42 0]

I didn't download any from the STEX, but what do you meaning running them at capacity?When it says like capacity used is the same as the capacity the elctriction guys says power failures are immenent, and then I realize my electricity starts to go.

And also, what do you mean there are higher capacity plants?

[earwax_man 18]

What type of power plants do you have? Try using the hydrogen plant. It has a very high capacity.

If you don't have it activated, then:

CTRL +X

Type "You don't deserve it"

Buy it

[bioduck42 0]

I think I'm using an oil power plant and a coal(?) or something plant.

[akafredo 0]

When you use the ? mark tool to click on your power station what is the slider set on, since that will determine if you are underfunding, and what the does the % used say?

[bioduck42 0]

The slider is almost as far over as I can go. And alot of the time it says like 90%-100% used

[Loney 22]

Have you downloaded any buildings or have any neighbor connections? If not, build more power plants, and if that doesn't help, download a higher capcity power plant of STEX.

What is your city's monthly power usage?

[Stormscape 8]

Here's a silly question: Is your power grid all connected?

[3dpuzzlemaster 20]

Download this:  https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=18848  Make sure you have the dependencies.

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: bioduck42

I didn't download any from the STEX, but what do you meaning running them at capacity?When it says like capacity used is the same as the capacity the elctriction guys says power failures are immenent, and then I realize my electricity starts to go.

And also, what do you mean there are higher capacity plants?

quote>

LEt me change the termonolgy around. Instead of adjusting the sliders to have you're plants run closer to the amount of power actually used, just leave the slider where it is. If the problem persists, and if your statement about not downloading anything is true, then you have a bug in the game since a city of 40k should not need so much power, at least in my past experience. That has to be around 13,000 Mw of power. Here's a question. Is 40k your residential pop or is that you city size? Do you have a lot of industry. Industry, in my past experience, is a power hog.

I guess our only advice then is to build more plants so they run below 75% capacity.

Also, by higher capacity plants we mean plants with capacities of 6000 Mw (coal) or 7000Mw (oil) instead of small ones like 200 Mw (windmils) and 3000 Mw (natural gas).

[bioduck42 0]

Sorry to ask, but what's a power grid? Is it the power lines of the city?

[Shai Hulud 0]

Try using the hydrogen plant. It has a very high capacity.

No way you're getting that much HT industry when you only have 40k citizens.

I would try increasing funding for all your power plants. If that doesn't work, then try and use a power plant with higher capacity. I believe oil has the highest.

I've never really had this problem, sorry if this doesn't help much.

[akafredo 0]

Originally posted by: bioduck42

Sorry to ask, but what's a power grid? Is it the power lines of the city?

quote>

Power can only travel through 5 empty squares in game. This means that if you have say some houses all close to gether then power will go to all of them, but if there are some shops that are 10 squares/tiles away with nothing inbetween, them power will not get to them (You should see the no power symbol above them) and you will have to build a power line (avalibale in the power station menu) to let the electricity flow to them.

Basicaly, are all the parts of your city connected up so that power either comes straight from the powersations through the power cable to it, or are the parts that are not connected directly by a power cable close enough to a part of the city which is (so closer than 5 game squares, or with something inbetween so it can jump). If you still dont get it I can post a screen shot to show what I mean.

It might be usefull if you post a screen shot of your city, so that we can figure out what is wrong with it

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: bioduck42

Sorry to ask, but what's a power grid? Is it the power lines of the city?

quote>

I do not think you are having a problem with your power grid or else you would be complaining about the no power icons above buildings, so I think your grid is fine so don't worry too much about that. How about you post a screen shot or two of your city. In case you don't know how:

Photobucket: simply click the insert image button (left of the gecko icon) and paste in the url of the image

Image Shack: click the gecko icon and browse for the image. Then upload it to image shack then select insert image.

[Darth Apple 54]

does the slider come down over this time?

if the funding slowly goes down on its own, you have the phantom slider bug , I don't know how to fix it, bit I know tungston does.

Hope this helps.

-Blakesterville.

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: bioduck42

It's about 4-6 months before the electricitian guy comes up and says that power failures are imminent.

quote>

Are you sure it is the main power plants it is referring to?  I use some lots, mostly lighthouses, that are powered, and they will generate that warning also.

Main power houses will generate that warning when they are down to about 60% efficiency.