Beecher

To make sure your Power Plant stays up, you have to educate your sims. I've plopped down an elementary school, high school, community college and a university. I have everybody in the town enrolled to school, as well as commuters from my own region. Education is like half a bar away from maxing out, and the tech level was maxed relatively easy early on. It's now been a few months and the power plant is running smoothly, even had to put in another reactor. I would NOT recommend using a Nuclear Power Plant until you know everyone is enrolled and educated.

Would it be possible to completely cut out the commercial bit? Let's say you've already started a little Gambling/Tourism city, which is mostly packed with some residential (low+mid+high) and commerical (low+mid). How would it work out if you build an, let's just label it "Industry/supply city" for fun, with mostly just residential, industrial, facilities (sewage, water, trash/recycling) and whatever specialization you might pick, let's say oil? I'm just imagining a series of unhappy businesses which has nowhere to ship their freight. Will the residents of an industrial-based city commute (i.e become toursists/students) in other cities in your own region? I maxed out the education level and industrial tech-level in one city I've been experimenting in, just to make sure my power plant wouldn't have a melt-down, worked fine, *phew*