Power Plant and Connection Question

[khaos526]

I've been playing around quite a bit and was curious about a few things and wondering if anyone had any experience if these things make a difference or not.

First, is it possible to group all the power plants up in one location on an island and then just run cables and substations to the rest of the island, that way they combine their power output? Or do they not combine like that?

Secondly, if you can't combine the power together from grouping power plants can they still be linked together across the map? Or does that somehow cause weird issues? Or is it better to have a power plant that has it's own separate network of lines and substations and then another independent station being linked to other lines and substations and neither of them connecting?

The reason I ask this is because say I have a single building and is equal distance away from two power plants. If I connect the building to both power plants via substations and pylons, I still have power if say I added another building close to one of the other power plants and use all of it's power. Or does it short circuit things down the line somewhere else?

I figure if I'm able to group (aka pool) up my power plants in one location on the map and just combine the power outage, and use substations and pylons to power the rest of the island, it might save me space trying to place large power plants in smaller areas that could be used for more enclosures or other buildings...

 

[JoaquinZaba]

There's no problem in connecting multiple power plants to the same network, so don't worry about short circuits.

However I'd reccomend to have them separated, that way you won't loose power in the whole island if a tornado cuts a wire between pylons.

Spoiler

Man I hate tornadoes

 

[Chris Simon]

Yep, it's definitely much better idea to have a couple of PPs in different parts of the island, all connected to one common grid. Ideally have enough spare power that if one PP gets knocked out the other two or so can still supply the park.

Another thing that I do, for example on Pena is that I make one big PP for the park and a small one specially for Ranger station and ACU. If you don't do that, you are going to have to take a jeep and go repair things manually, which is kind of bad because you're usually having much more pressing matters on your hands during a tornado strike.

 

[khaos526]

Ok thanks for the input. I'm actually back on Muerta as I guess I never completed it to get to the mid level power plant (shouldn't have rushed through it to get to the sandbox mode). So back trying to get that before moving on and finishing up the other islands fully and getting the large power plant.

Well good news on being able to connect all the power plants then together and might group a few of them in one location and still spread the others out. That way I can easily have the space when needed for the larger upgrades in case they take up more room...

 

[vassalcm]

it is better to have them all connected that way if one goes down, others can pick up the slack. I sometimes place specifically close power plates for key things like the ranger station and ACU (like stated above). Those are normally closer to the park due to their role and the power plants are further because they are ugly. This helps a lot because when power becomes short the buildings further away from each power plant lose power first or at least from what i have seen when placing a new building that tips the power consumption over. If its next to the power station and on the same line as the others, something else will shut down. Please correct me if i am wrong, this is just what i have observed.

 

[khaos526]

Yeah, I decided and found after getting back into the game it's a lot easier to spread them out, but also doesn't hurt to group a few if I have the space just for the extra power. I've finally got the medium power plant now, so that helps, but having them spread out really helps, especially when they get sabotaged, I can re-route things before the Rangers get around to fixing the issue if I really need it in electric fence areas...

 

[Steggs]

Good tips here, thanks to those who shared