[R&F] Question on Power Plants and Power Production

[JasTiger]

So the tooltip reads that the power extends from power plants to the cities within 6 tiles. Does that mean it has to hit the CITY CENTER to power the, say, broadcast tower in the cultural district? Or does the cultural district itself need to be within 6 tiles? Or can the cultural center be 9 tiles, but city center be 6 tiles and it still get powered?
I'm also unsure how it prioritizes power. If I have cities with hydroelectric dams, will it just split the power to whatever needs it, regardless of which one is dirtier than the other? For example if I need 8 power and I have a dam providing 6 and a coal plant providing 4, so I have the coal plant going full bore or is the dam using it all?
Furthermore, is it possible to voluntarily turn OFF power plants and just let things go unpowered?
Also, does a coal or oil plant that has nothing to power create just as much pollution as one that is fully powering things, or does it matter, i.e. if a plant is there, you're getting the pollution no matter what?
If you're short on a resource does the plant just produce one less power or does it shut off completely in favor of military units or vice versa? Think if you keep building infantry and you have an oil plant as well. What happens when you run out?

Its not all completely clear.

 

[JasTiger]

No one has a response on this? I am sad.

 

[CPWimmer]

The distance is to city center.

I am unsure about the answers to your other questions.
I THINK that it will only produce as much dirty power as you need, so it will consume green power first.
I THINK that the more power being produced the more pollution that is produced.

 

[Sostratus]

I'm also unsure how it prioritizes power. If I have cities with hydroelectric dams, will it just split the power to whatever needs it, regardless of which one is dirtier than the other? For example if I need 8 power and I have a dam providing 6 and a coal plant providing 4, so I have the coal plant going full bore or is the dam using it all?
Furthermore, is it possible to voluntarily turn OFF power plants and just let things go unpowered?
Also, does a coal or oil plant that has nothing to power create just as much pollution as one that is fully powering things, or does it matter, i.e. if a plant is there, you're getting the pollution no matter what?
If you're short on a resource does the plant just produce one less power or does it shut off completely in favor of military units or vice versa? Think if you keep building infantry and you have an oil plant as well. What happens when you run out?

1) Everything that isn't a power plant in the Industrial Zone provides power locally to whatever city's territory it is in*. So if you have a hydro dam in Rome, that's 6 power attached to Rome. Local power sources are all clean power. Local power is always used first before anything is generated from a power plant - just like how local amenities are used before amenities from luxury resources are distributed. In your scenario, the dam provides 6 power, so you need 2 more. The power plant will produce 2 more power to cover it. It ends up burning 1 coal, because you can only burn in integer units.
*apparently there's a bug where building something like a geothermal plant then switching to tile ownership doesn't properly transfer the power yield.
2) You can't turn anything off yet. I think it might be coming in a patch. @Victoria I think you mentioned something on this?
3) CO2 emissions are produced solely based on resources being consumed. You can have 1 coal plant or 50, it only matters how much coal/oil/uranium you burn. For this purpose, unit maintenace for oil and uranium count the same as burning it in a power plant. If power plants have nothing to do, they won't create any unneeded power but they will provide any production benefits.
4) plants will burn whatever they need to burn to power everything, even if this means using more resources than you produce (reducing your stockpile every turn.) Eventually, when you run out, it will readjust to only use the amount you're bringing in every turn. Resources are deposited in your stockpile before power generation is calculated.
5) I'm pretty sure units take precedence over power plants. However, if you run out of oil completely and still have a deficit (using more than you take in,) your units requiring it will suffer a -10 combat penalty, and they cannot heal until you have at least 1 of the resource in your stockpile.

 

[JasTiger]

1) Everything that isn't a power plant in the Industrial Zone provides power locally to whatever city's territory it is in*. So if you have a hydro dam in Rome, that's 6 power attached to Rome. Local power sources are all clean power. Local power is always used first before anything is generated from a power plant - just like how local amenities are used before amenities from luxury resources are distributed. In your scenario, the dam provides 6 power, so you need 2 more. The power plant will produce 2 more power to cover it. It ends up burning 1 coal, because you can only burn in integer units.
*apparently there's a bug where building something like a geothermal plant then switching to tile ownership doesn't properly transfer the power yield.
2) You can't turn anything off yet. I think it might be coming in a patch. @Victoria I think you mentioned something on this?
3) CO2 emissions are produced solely based on resources being consumed. You can have 1 coal plant or 50, it only matters how much coal/oil/uranium you burn. For this purpose, unit maintenace for oil and uranium count the same as burning it in a power plant. If power plants have nothing to do, they won't create any unneeded power but they will provide any production benefits.
4) plants will burn whatever they need to burn to power everything, even if this means using more resources than you produce (reducing your stockpile every turn.) Eventually, when you run out, it will readjust to only use the amount you're bringing in every turn. Resources are deposited in your stockpile before power generation is calculated.
5) I'm pretty sure units take precedence over power plants. However, if you run out of oil completely and still have a deficit (using more than you take in,) your units requiring it will suffer a -10 combat penalty, and they cannot heal until you have at least 1 of the resource in your stockpile.

1: But its to the actual tile needing it, not the city center? So say there is an additional 2 power needed in Rome, but the Research Lab is 9 tiles away from Antiums Industrial zone, but Rome's city center is 6 away. Is that Research Lab getting power or is it still needing that extra 2 since it doesn't reach the Antium IZ, but its Rome city center does?

2. Thanks!

3. So if I have 3 plants and only 1 research lab, am I burning 3 coal or am I burning 1 coal to meet the needs of that one plant? or are they in an "always on" situation and I Just have excess power?

4. Thanks!

5. Is the max penalty -10 or does it go higher the longer it has gone without resources?

 

[Sostratus]

1: But its to the actual tile needing it, not the city center? So say there is an additional 2 power needed in Rome, but the Research Lab is 9 tiles away from Antiums Industrial zone, but Rome's city center is 6 away. Is that Research Lab getting power or is it still needing that extra 2 since it doesn't reach the Antium IZ, but its Rome city center does?

2. Thanks!

3. So if I have 3 plants and only 1 research lab, am I burning 3 coal or am I burning 1 coal to meet the needs of that one plant? or are they in an "always on" situation and I Just have excess power?

4. Thanks!

5. Is the max penalty -10 or does it go higher the longer it has gone without resources?

1) Power is all handled at the city level. The relevant measure of distance is if the aura of the power plant (from the IZ its in) touches the city center of whatever you're trying to power. So If Antium has the power plant, then the power plant needs to cover rome's city center. It's just like how production auras are applied to the city center. Then the power can flow through magical conduits to get to anywhere the city needs.

3) If you have 3 plants and only 1 lab (3 sources and 1 sink) then one of the power plants will burn 1 unit of coal to supply 3 power to it. The other plants will burn zero coal. It won't produce excess power. However because building a power plant requires a factory in the first place, which uses 2 power, spamming plants everywhere is only a good idea if they are coal plants specifically. Coal plants have the shipyard effect of granting the district adjacency, which is useful for well placed IZs. So just be careful about that.

5) It's just a straight -10, afaik it doesn't matter if you need 1 unit or 100 units. Protip: if your tanks run out of oil, the -10 brings them to 70, which is the same base strength as infantry units. So gas starved tanks are still very effective - they just become faster infantry.

 

[Victoria]

2) You can't turn anything off yet. I think it might be coming in a patch. @Victoria I think you mentioned something on this?

Sadly it was merely sarcasm, apologies.

 

[kaspergm]

3) CO2 emissions are produced solely based on resources being consumed. You can have 1 coal plant or 50, it only matters how much coal/oil/uranium you burn. For this purpose, unit maintenace for oil and uranium count the same as burning it in a power plant. If power plants have nothing to do, they won't create any unneeded power but they will provide any production benefits.
(...)
3) If you have 3 plants and only 1 lab (3 sources and 1 sink) then one of the power plants will burn 1 unit of coal to supply 3 power to it. The other plants will burn zero coal. It won't produce excess power. However because building a power plant requires a factory in the first place, which uses 2 power, spamming plants everywhere is only a good idea if they are coal plants specifically. Coal plants have the shipyard effect of granting the district adjacency, which is useful for well placed IZs. So just be careful about that.

I must admit I've been a bit confused by this. It says in the test, that the power plant converts 1 coal into 4 power, but what is the limit to how much power the plant can provide per city it covers? Can it provide 4 power per city or more? So let's take two examples:

a) Plant covers 3 cities. Each city consumes 4 power. I assume plant will burn 3 coal each turn?
b) Plant covers 3 cities. Each city consumes 8 power. Can the plant provide this much power? And if yes, will it burn 6 coal each turn?
c) Plant covers 3 cities. Each city consumes 6 power. Can the plant provide this much power? And if yes, how much will it burn - 5 units (for a total of 20 power, to cover the 18 needed), or 6 units (for a total of 24 power, to provide 8 in each city)?

 

[ezzlar]

I have an oil power plant generating 68 power for 17 oil units. 68/4=17. Two top cities require 11 power each, so it seems they add total?

I just noticed that solar farms built outside city 3 radius still count for power, thats good!

And this new power system has forced a builder player like me to liberate several oil resources located in my poor neighbours land. And i thought I was such a peaceful player...

 

[Sostratus]

I must admit I've been a bit confused by this. It says in the test, that the power plant converts 1 coal into 4 power, but what is the limit to how much power the plant can provide per city it covers? Can it provide 4 power per city or more? So let's take two examples:

a) Plant covers 3 cities. Each city consumes 4 power. I assume plant will burn 3 coal each turn?
b) Plant covers 3 cities. Each city consumes 8 power. Can the plant provide this much power? And if yes, will it burn 6 coal each turn?
c) Plant covers 3 cities. Each city consumes 6 power. Can the plant provide this much power? And if yes, how much will it burn - 5 units (for a total of 20 power, to cover the 18 needed), or 6 units (for a total of 24 power, to provide 8 in each city)?

Power plants can burn unlimited fuel to produce enough power. The power load is aggregated together before it computes how much fuel to burn.
a) 3 coal, yes
b) 8 coal, yes. You can run your entire civ off of a single nuke plant if you get Tesla + Mexico city.
c) it's 5 units. If the three cities were separate enough that each had to be covered by a different power plant, then it would be 6 units, 2 each. (Although I'm not sure if the emissions counts for 18 or 20.)

 

[kaspergm]

Thanx for clarifying, this was not clear to me at all.