Help with comparing power plants

[reReticulated Spline 69]

Hey all!

 

I've been looking at power plants recently and noticed something I don't understand.

 

A Dirty coal generator has these stats:

 

MW generated per hour: 75

Fuel burnt per day: 4.3 ton

Base price global market coal: 440 $/ton

 

Cost (4.3 * 440 / 24) / MW (75) means coal costs $79 per hour to fuel

 

A Conventional Oil generator has these stats:

 

MW generated per hour: 150

Fuel burnt per day: 8640 barrels

Base price global market oil: 7.8 $/barrel

 

Cost (8640 * 7.8 / 24) / MW (150) means oil costs $2808 per hour to fuel (only 2 times as much as 

 

 

That's, quite a difference. I am calculating how much each power supply costs, and most sources are comparable to coal but oil is much more expensive for some reason. Nuclear is also very expensive, but at least it makes so much power that it makes sense. Did I make some mistake? When is oil ever useful?

 

[bjl707 4]

I think the math is wrong.  I don't have it on front of me, but I don' t think it costs that much per day to run an oil plant.  I have an oil plant in one of my cities of nearly 300K and still have excess MW that I could sell if I wanted.  If you have oil you can drill it and use it locally.  If not, plop a trade depot and import it, then send it to your plant.  Don't just buy it from the global market and have trucks drive it to your plant directly.  The trucks will most likely get stuck in traffic or just drive around the city and leave without fueling the plant.  Then your city will start to shut down.  Having the trade depot with a oil lot makes a huge difference.  My old coal plant couldn't keep up with a city of just over 100K even fully maxed out. 

[reReticulated Spline 69]

I definately think there's something wrong with the math, because Oil is a huge outlier. But I can't figure out what it is and was hoping somebody here could point out the mistake.

 

 

BTW. nuclear is suppose to be the cheapest, I said it wrong.

[reReticulated Spline 69]

Since I've found no explanation about the oil, I decided to just upload the graphs I came up with.

 

The first graph is about which powerplant is cheapest to use in the early game. (Without selling to neighbours.)

The second graph is about which powerplant is cheapest to use in the late game.

 

 

 

Here are the numbers I've worked with:

(As far as I know, there is no difference between importing and exporting pricing, so it shouldn't matter in costs if you produce the resource yourself or not.)

Wind Power = 10

Coal price = 440/ton

Oil price = 9/barrel

Water price 0.0025/gallon (pumping station)

 

Not included:

- Cost/benefits worker requirement

- Extra healthcare costs due to pollution

- Cost of transportation of resources 

- Cost of Tech required to keep building running at maximum

- Wind mills occationally malfunctioning and temporarily not producing energy until repaired

- Polution/clouds reducing Solar power output

- Plopping costs

 

In the late game I've found the following windpower would put Vertical Turbines at the same comparable cost:

5 MPH = Clean Oil

12 MPH = Clean Coal

13 MPH = Solar Power

19 MPH = Fast Neutron

 

Dirty Coal costs 63% as much as Clean Coal making it almost the same price as Nuclear Energy! 

 

 

Conclusion:

Dirty Coal is the cheap poluting solution that stays relevant all game long. It also has the lowest footprint by comparion.

Nuclear is the cheapest solution. It has a slightly higher footprint due to the massive amounts of water it also needs. Does come with tech requirement and disaster risk.

Wind is the best solution for starting cities that cannot sell their power. At high altitude, it can compete with the others, especially if you build on the otherwise unusable cliffs. Other than that it's the most expensive.

Solar Power is surprisingly cheap green power but with a huge footprint of prime real estate.

Oil is... weird. Maybe if the oil price collapsed it would be useful. I still feel like there is something wrong in my math. Then again, Oil cities are usually floating in cash, so why not build one that doesn't require more trucks from the region and pollutes slighly less then Coal?

[Robotica 36]

I use oil in just about all of my cities, as coal just isn't enough. I never have problem with the costs, as it seems cheaper than running 5 coal plants to equal 2 oil.

[brian00gt 0]

I personally use coal to start my city. Then I will build a megatower with a solar crown and bulldoze the coal power plant. Why have a powerplant take up space? If you don't have cities of tomorrow ignore this post.

[Vampirovibrio 43]

I just started using fusion power plant in one of my city. Hope it doesn't explode like nuclear if tech suddenly drops.

[asasa45454 4]

This thread is very old, but the OP's math is completely wrong.

[migamin 38]

This thread is very old, but the OP's math is completely wrong.

What a comment...

[Melonlemontomato 3]

I just started using fusion power plant in one of my city. Hope it doesn't explode like nuclear if tech suddenly drops.

 Fusion Power Plant will not explode. (Even I have no tech level in my city) So you can use it, no worry.

 

Hey all!

 

I've been looking at power plants recently and noticed something I don't understand.

 

A Dirty coal generator has these stats:

 

MW generated per hour: 75

Fuel burnt per day: 4.3 ton

Base price global market coal: 440 $/ton

 

Cost (4.3 * 440 / 24) / MW (75) means coal costs $79 per hour to fuel

 

A Conventional Oil generator has these stats:

 

MW generated per hour: 150

Fuel burnt per day: 8640 barrels

Base price global market oil: 7.8 $/barrel

 

Cost (8640 * 7.8 / 24) / MW (150) means oil costs $2808 per hour to fuel (only 2 times as much as 

 

 

That's, quite a difference. I am calculating how much each power supply costs, and most sources are comparable to coal but oil is much more expensive for some reason. Nuclear is also very expensive, but at least it makes so much power that it makes sense. Did I make some mistake? When is oil ever useful?

Mister, your calculation is wrong.

You suppose calculate the coal power by using 4300kg instead of 4.3tons