SimCity 4/Power

Power (electricity) is a necessity for any SimCity 4 city. Without power, zoned areas (residential, commercial, industrial) will not develop, and civic structures will not function. Power is produced by power plants, is carried by power lines, and can be traded between adjacent cities.

A city will require a certain amount of power; this demand, and the city's capacity to supply it, is displayed on the Power graph. The amount of power required will grow as the city does; if the demand overtakes the supply, blackouts (indicated by "no power" zots flashing across the city) will occur and the city will suffer as a result until the lack of supply is corrected.

Power Structures
Each power plant has a base maintenance cost and electricity output which will degrade over time; for best results, power plants should be replaced when their condition level (visible by examining the structure) falls below an acceptable level. Power plants can be under-funded, which results in a lessened output and greater wear-and-tear, or over-funded, resulting in an increased output.

Power output and consumption in SimCity 4 is measured in Megawatt Hours (MWh). Some plants are not initially available, they must be unlocked (for each individual city) before being deployed.

Wind Power Plant
The power of the windmill is acceptable for initial settlement, but beyond small cities, wind power just isn't scalable; the small output and high base cost make large-scale use of wind power just not feasible.

Natural Gas Plant
A viable alternative to coal or oil, natural gas has a lower level of pollution, but a higher base cost. The big issue with natural gas is it's lack of raw output; natural gas plants will struggle to provide for large cities for this reason.

Coal Power Plant
The coal plant provides the best output-to-cost ratio, but produces the most pollution of any power plant. It's definitely a viable option for some cities, but what is gained in efficient power, is often lost to pollution; city planners working in large regions may be able to push the plant off to one side to work around this.

Oil Power Plant
The oil plant sits between natural gas and coal in terms of both pollution and cost-efficiency, with added output as a bonus. Probably a viable option for most cities, although smaller cities might need to under-fund to keep costs down.

Solar Power Plant
The first of the viable pollution-free plants. Solar plants have a decent output, but a high cost. Solar power may support smaller cities, but large ones may require higher-capacity alternatives.

Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear power stations provide a comparatively large volume of power - more than double the output of an oil power station. However, this comes at a cost: nuclear power generation runs the risk of a runaway fission reaction causing a nuclear meltdown, irradiating areas of the city and causing them to be uninhabitable. If city planners intend to use nuclear power, it is advised that adequate fire coverage be provided for the power station.

Hydrogen Power Plant
Often incorrectly labelled as a "holy grail" of energy production, hydrogen power is an excellent source of large quantities of energy, and with no pollution, but the base cost is on par with solar power and only slightly better than wind power; the polluting sources of energy are more cost-efficient. These are definitely viable sources of energy, but city planners are advised to check that their power requirements warrant such a large facility. These plants can be under-funded, but given their construction cost it may not be wise to accelerate the degradation of hydrogen plants by under-funding them.

Waste to Power Generator
Listed under sanitation in the tools, but technically also a power station. The waste to power plant incinerates trash to create power. However, with the output and base cost of a solar plant, combined with the pollution of an oil plant, the waste to power plant is generally not an effective means of generating power (or disposing of waste).

Power Lines
Power lines are used to connect sections of the city to the power grid. Power will automatically be transferred up to five squares between buildings, but beyond this, power lines are required to link to the power grid. Typical uses for power lines are to connect to power plants that are distanced from the city itself, and to connect to neighbouring regions (see below).

Neighbour Deals
Power can be traded with neighbouring regions via the neighbour deals section of the budget. In this manner, cities can profit from their power generation, or have their power requirements met outside of the region. City planners are advised to watch their budget if reliant upon traded power; if the budget goes into deficit, the city is unable to pay for the supplied power and the supply is cut, usually with catastrophic consequences, considering the necessity of power to the city.