101 - Powerplants

If you are considering operating a powerplant, here are the basics that you need to know!

Costs

Powerplants are purchased from the Global Market > Building Kit area. Their price ranges from a little over $1 million bux, up to several billion bux. Some plants can operate without the need for materials, but some, like coal and peat plants, require a raw good input to keep functioning and producing power, please be sure to consider this!

Construction

All powerplants are constructed on industrial land. The acreage required is visible on the Global Market purchasing page as shown above. Here you also see the required construction level. You can opt to hire NPC builders, who will start work immediately but take longer and cost more than a player, or you can seek out a player to do the building for you via the agreements system. Once construction has started, it’s just a waiting game!

Operations

Powerplants function on two operational levels. The first and most basic is the wholesale level. This method you produce power at the plant which is ‘stored’ in your local warehouse and then can be sold on the Global Exchange via sell orders. This method yields a lower profit margin but is always readily available and requires no additional work other than keeping the plant powered and maintained, and placing orders.

The second level is Consumer production. This requires you to set up a power grid network include poles, substations, and even service crews as well as marketing and a myriad of other items. However the reward for following through on this extra layer of effort is that you sell at retail pricing to NPC customers automatically, and as long as you are doing the right thing and doing it better than your competitors, you will continue to earn marketshare.

Above is how your powerplant overview will look.

The top center shows how much power is produced hourly when online, how many workers are working there, it’s maintenance percentage, and if it is a plant that requires raw input, how much you have stored.
On the top right is where you can power on/off the facility.
On the bottom left is your consumer demographics. It shows how many potential customers there are in your area, how many you have, and how many your infrastructure can support.
In the bottom center is your powergrid network expansion options. Here you can add to your powergrid to be able to service more customers, but it requires materials and costs for installation.
On the bottom right is where you can set your sale price for electric, remember, you want to stay competitive or you may begin losing customers!

Power Grid Expansion Needs

Expansion Type	Installation Cost & Mats	Customer Expansion Per Unit
Power Pole	$1,000 Bux Utility Pole x 1 Power cable x 0.33 Utility Pole Transformer x 0.33	Services approximately 2-3 additional customers per pole.
Substation	$50,000 Bux Substation Transformer x 1	Services approximately 350 additional customers per substation.

Service Crews & Support Staff

This feature is not yet live but coming soon and will include requiring staff and equipment to maintain your expanding powergrids and deal with things like natural disasters and storms!