How Do You Activate Power Plants In City Skylines?

Power and electricity are crucial to running a successful city in City Skylines. Nearly every building in your city requires electricity to operate. As your city grows, you’ll need to expand power infrastructure to meet increasing demand.

There are several types of power plants you can build to generate electricity in City Skylines, including coal, oil, nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal plants. Each has advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost, pollution, space requirements, and more.

You’ll need to connect power plants to your city’s electrical grid using power lines. Carefully managing electricity supply and demand is key to prevent blackouts or wasted capacity. Monitoring electricity info views can help optimize your city’s power.

This article provides an overview of how to effectively power your growing City Skylines metropolis using the various power generation options available.

Coal Power Plant

Coal power plants are an early-game power source in Cities: Skylines that can provide a steady supply of electricity. They are unlocked at the start of the game under the Electricity menu (Source: https://skylines.fandom.com/wiki/Coal_Power_Plant).

To place a coal power plant, open the Electricity menu and select Coal Power Plant. Click on a zoning area to place it. Make sure to connect it to your city’s power grid using power lines. Coal power plants should be placed near roads so delivery trucks can supply coal (Source: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/275392/how-do-i-get-coal-delivered-to-my-power-plant).

Coal power plants require a steady supply of coal to operate. If your plant runs out of coal, it will shut down. Make sure it has road access so more coal can be delivered. You may need to zone more industrial areas and import coal from outside connections later in the game to meet higher electricity demands.

Oil Power Plant

The Oil Power Plant is a power generating structure capable of producing 120 megawatts of electricity. It is unlocked by reaching the Busy Town milestone according to the Skylines Wikia.

To unlock the Oil Power Plant, you first need to zone some industrial areas and wait for oil industry to move in. Once your city reaches a population of 4,000, you will hit the Busy Town milestone which unlocks the Oil Power Plant. You can find it in the Power menu within the Buildings panel.

When placing an Oil Power Plant, make sure there is road access so delivery trucks can bring oil to fuel the plant. It’s a good idea to place it near your industrial oil production areas or oil storage facilities to ensure smooth delivery. The plant will need a steady supply of fuel oil, so traffic jams can cause issues as discussed on Reddit.

Each Oil Power Plant has a capacity of 120 MW, so you may need multiple plants as your city’s power demands grow. Monitor the availability of fuel and consider adding additional oil industry or import/storage facilities to keep these plants running at maximum capacity.

Nuclear Power Plant

To unlock the nuclear power plant in Cities: Skylines, you must first reach the Milestone of Colossal City, which requires 80,000 population and a unique building (via Fandom). Once unlocked, you can find the nuclear power plant in the Power menu. Each nuclear plant provides 640 MW of power but requires a large supply of water, so build them near oceans or rivers (Fandom). They do create a small amount of ground pollution, so allow some space between plants and residential zones.

Building a nuclear plant requires 8,000 credits upfront and 150 credits per week for maintenance. Be sure to connect power lines from the plant to your city’s power grid to distribute the electricity. Monitor the power availability infoview to ensure your city has enough power being generated at all times. Nuclear plants are a great mid-game power source that can support a large city before players unlock more advanced options like the Fusion Power Plant (Strats).

Solar Power Plant

The solar power plant is an alternative electricity generation structure that relies on solar energy to produce power. According to skylines.fandom.com, it is capable of generating up to 160 megawatts during the day and 112 megawatts at night.

To unlock the solar power plant in Cities: Skylines, you first need to reach a population milestone of 10,000 citizens. Once your city population hits that number, the solar power plant will become available for construction in the power menu.

The main advantage of solar power plants is that they provide clean, renewable energy without any pollution. However, they can only generate electricity during daylight hours, so many players use them in conjunction with other power sources that operate at night.

When placing solar plants, it’s ideal to build them in wide open areas without obstructions to maximize sun exposure. Connect them to your city’s power grid using underground power lines to transmit the electricity generated.

Wind Power Plant

Wind power is a clean and renewable source of electricity in Cities: Skylines. To build a wind farm, you first need to unlock the wind turbine in the city services menu. Wind turbines get placed individually and can be arranged into groups or ‘farms’ for aesthetic or optimization purposes.

The most important factor in building an effective wind farm is location. Turbines produce the most power when placed in high wind areas, preferably on flat terrain. Use the wind info view to locate optimal spots. Give turbines plenty of space from buildings and other objects that could block wind. Each turbine has a radius in which it needs unobstructed wind flow (source).

Monitor the power info panel to see wind farm output fluctuate with wind conditions. Total energy production can be increased by adding more turbines. With enough turbines placed strategically around the city map, wind power alone can fully supply your city’s electricity demands.

Hydroelectric Power Plant

Hydroelectric power plants in Cities: Skylines are unlocked by reaching the Small City milestone. To place a hydro plant, you’ll need to locate a suitable section of river where both ends connect to land. The river must be fairly wide, as narrow rivers cannot support hydro plants.

When placing hydroelectric dams, make sure the dam is facing the correct direction so that water builds up behind it. The arrow on the dam placement icon indicates the direction the water will flow. Dams placed backwards will not generate any power. Also be aware of existing water flow, as placing dams against the current can lead to flooding upstream.

Hydro plants should be spaced out along the river and not clustered too close together. Leave adequate distance between dams to allow water to accumulate. Insufficient water depth due to overbuilding will reduce power output. Manage water flow carefully to maximize power generation across your hydro facilities.

Geothermal Power Plant

Geothermal power plants use naturally occurring pockets of steam and hot water to produce electricity in Cities: Skylines. The key benefit of geothermal energy is its reliability as an efficient baseload renewable power source. Geothermal plants extract heat from beneath the Earth’s surface and convert it into electricity using steam turbines.

To build a geothermal plant in Cities: Skylines, you first need to locate a geothermal resource on the map. These spots will be marked with steam fissures coming up from the ground. Zoom in on the map to find them, often near hills and mountains. Place a geothermal power plant building directly over the steam. Connect it to your city’s power grid using electrical lines to start generating electricity. The geothermal plant will then extract the underground heat to power its turbines (Source).

One tip when using geothermal plants is to avoid placing multiple plants too close together. The underground heat can become depleted, reducing efficiency. Space plants apart to sustain production over time. Monitor electricity info views to ensure adequate power generation (Source). With proper management, geothermal energy can provide a steady, renewable power supply for cities.

Power Lines

Power lines are essential for transmitting electricity from power plants to the zones in your city that need power in Cities: Skylines. Without connecting power plants to buildings, your city will not function properly.

To build power line connections, you first need to build power plants like coal, oil, nuclear, wind, solar, etc. Once built, power plants will have an electrical area of effect around them. This is the area that will be powered automatically.

For buildings outside the area of effect, you need to manually connect power lines from the power plant to the buildings. According to the Cities: Skylines Wiki [1], you can find power lines in the Electricity panel in City Services. Click and drag from the power plant to create connections.

Strategically place power lines to efficiently connect power plants to zones in your city. You may need multiple plants and connections as your city grows. Monitor the electricity info view to see power coverage and where new lines are needed. With good power line placement, your city will have the electricity it needs to function.

Managing and Monitoring Power

Monitoring and managing your power supply is crucial to prevent shortages and outages in your city. You can check the electricity info panel in the bottom left to see details about your power production capacity versus current usage. The game will warn you if demand is close to exceeding supply.

It’s important to watch if demand spikes during times of peak usage, and add additional capacity before an outage occurs. You can add more power plants, wind turbines, etc. to increase supply. Upgrading power lines and substations can also help distribute power more efficiently.

Additionally, you can enact power usage reduction policies or encourage less electricity intensive industries to reduce demand. The Electricity Usage Overlay view lets you visualize where power is being consumed the most.

If an area of your city does experience an outage, look for gaps in power line connections from the power source. You may need to add transmission lines to reach isolated neighborhoods. The game provides good tools to track supply versus demand and head off power issues as your city grows.