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Cities: Skylines > Guides > Magistar's Guides
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Electricity and the best power plants [1.3]
By Magistar
Cities Skylines offers different methods to produce electricity. This guide attempts to explain the different options and calculate the cost per MW and investment required so you can keep your cities treasury health!
   
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Created by
Magistar
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Category: Gameplay Basics, Secrets, Walkthroughs
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
10 Mar, 2015 @ 11:11am
19 Mar, 2015 @ 2:02pm
12,108 Unique Visitors
79 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction 
Power lines 
The best power plants in Cities Skylines 
Exceptions 
Summary 
Version history 
Comments
Introduction
This is a summary of the full guide located at: Cities Skylines Guide – Electricity and the best power plants?[www.gameplayinside.com]. This is an in-game reference!
Power lines
Buildings close to each other will create a single zone. Power lines will need to be constructed to connect different zones together.

Correct
Wrong
The best power plants in Cities Skylines
Overview table

Construction cost and upkeep:

Costs per MWh

Further reading
If you are interested in my interpretation read then check out the full guide: Cities Skylines Guide – Electricity and the best power plants?[www.gameplayinside.com]
Exceptions
Exception: Wind Turbines
Wind Turbines generate MW based on their placement. They also create a lot of noise pollution. Therefore it is probably a bad idea to spam the entire map with Turbines.
  • A land based Wind Turbine can rival a Coal Power Plant in terms of upkeep at 7 MW
  • A water based Advanced Wind Turbine can rival a Coal Power Plant at 3 MW

Exception: Hydro Power Plant
The Hydro power plant is a flexible building that can be constructed across any river within your territory. The power output ranges from 0 to 1600 MW depending on the water height difference. It has a fixed upkeep of 3200. Therefore it can be extremely expensive (when it is generating 90 MW) or very cheap. Note that you can actually get an estimate from the in-game tool tip while dragging out this building.

Exception: Coal Power Plant
Coal Power plants burn actual coal in order to function. When constructed they will come with 9 week worth of coal. When their coal reserves drop they will order in coal from “off map”. So it is very important to have a working road connection that is linked to the outside highway.

Exception: Incineration Plant
Incineration plant also produce 12 MW of power. Because of their €1440 weekly upkeep each MW will cost you a whopping €120. So not recommended as primary source of power!
Summary
At the start of the game you have to choose between Wind Turbines and Coal Power plants. Always choose Wind Turbines as long as you can plop them for 6 MW or better. Eventually you will be forced to use Coal Power because they provide 40 MW (6 Wind Turbines).

If your map supports it then you can start replacing coal power as soon as you unlock the advanced wind turbines at 2600 citizens. Besides saving upkeep this will also lower pollution. Skip the Oil Power and wait until you unlock the Solar Power plant at 20.000 citizens. If you are going to experiment with the Hydro dam then I strongly recommend to save your game!
Version history
10/3/2015 Released 1.0
11/3/2015 Released 1.1 added Coal Power Plant and Incineration Plant info.
12/3/2015 Released 1.2 fixed incorrect investment per MW graph.
19/3/2015 Released 1.3 fixed incorrect oil plant construction cost in table and 2 graphs.
21 Comments
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Snow Goose 2 Nov, 2021 @ 5:39am 
Nice, thanks
ArcaneGamer 18 Mar, 2015 @ 2:28pm 
Excellent guide. The cost effectiveness of dams are perfect when they are at maximum capacity. Just 2€ per MW! The trick is placement.
apd1004 17 Mar, 2015 @ 12:40pm 
ok thanks. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't me.
Magistar  [author] 17 Mar, 2015 @ 7:25am 
No you are not. Maybe it changed from pre-release or maybe it was a typo. Regardless I will have to update the table and 2 graphs. Thanks.
apd1004 17 Mar, 2015 @ 3:02am 
Am I missing something? In my game oil plants cost 50K, not 15K.
Magistar  [author] 15 Mar, 2015 @ 10:48am 
Yes dependig on the map you can place a certain number of 6MW or better wind turbines. In my map this was 7 on the first tile. I had no access to sea with a good wind yield. Therefore I ended up using 4 coal power plants.
ansonh92 15 Mar, 2015 @ 10:42am 
He maybe meant before unlocking any new power source at the start of the game.
Hanse00 13 Mar, 2015 @ 4:10pm 
I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean by "Eventually you will be forced to use Coal Power because they provide 40 MW (6 Wind Turbines)." how will you be forced to use Coal Power?

So far in all 3 different cities I have tried (I was unhappy with some early game choices I made, and rather than try to fix them, I started over), I've had no trouble powering myself soley with windmills, then switching over to advanced sea based ones when unlocked.
Magistar  [author] 12 Mar, 2015 @ 8:11am 
Incorrect graph has been corrected, thanks Kupferdrache.
Magistar  [author] 12 Mar, 2015 @ 7:00am 
@Kupferdrache
Those are the exact values in the table. Must have done something wrong when making the 4axis graph. Thanks I will check it out.

@ajeremie4
Hydro plants are hard. They only work when the water level is at it's maximum level. Then it will let through water. So if you dam is too high, too big or there are not enough water spawns (or there is an alternate route) then it will not work.