How to Build an Efficient Power Network ║ Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic

This video will show how electricity works in Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic. I am fairly certain this is not true to real life, just my way of making sense of the way it works in-game.

Basically, I think of voltage as the amount of power produced and used, while wattage is the maximum throughput of the power lines.

Since I had a less clear idea about the inner workings of this aspect of the game, I can only hope this is an adequate explanation of my though process when it comes to setting up a power network.

** Voiceover done with Amazon's Polly text-to-speech engine **
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[dayzrustream]

I've heard that there are some more situations that can lower the bandwidth pretty drastically:

- Every next switch does cut some maximum wattage that goes through it.
- Underground wires reduce power by like 50%.
- Long distance can reduce some power, but HV lines work fine, as IRL.

This means that we should use HV lines going straight to the destination switch, avoiding HV switches if we can.
We should avoid having several switches in a row - this would work pretty bad at full loads. It's the most common and harmful mistake.
We should avoid using underground power if we can.

Our power network should rather look like a beautiful tree: with a tall thick trunk, multiple balanced branches and twigs. No branch should stick out too much.

I'm really bad at this game, but some of that info could help to build a better power network, avoiding power losses.

[westhamdd]

Other useful tips for power distribution:
1. You can connect wind power to your main grid via a transformer. Plug in 6 big windmills, 1 per MV connection and pipe the power out of the transformer to an HV switch. You are now connected with green energy. Green power will be used first and can lessen the load of your coal/nuclear/oil power.
2. Develop a power template. I suggest the following HV Switch ----> Transformer ---> MV Switch --> Substation. 6 MV switches per substation. The reason being is that you will often find you have to destroy/rebuild power connections because you want to run a road or building. This lets you hot swap connections using the MV switches so you don't go without power. Always use no more than 5 of the MV connections on your transformer so you can do the hot swap. The purpose of the HV switch is 2-fold. First, so you can hotswap the entire city network if needed. Second is to fork off your high power lines to continue on. You just need to use the overlays to ensure you have enough power. You can also use HV switches to join or split power grids.
3. If you want to export and import power both, you need to do it at separate facilities. It is even better to simply separate your grids if possible. Use 1 HV connection for your domestic consumption and another for export, for example.

[quickturnmusic]

the format and the explanation in your videos is outstanding - thank you

[Welgeldiguniekalias]

Power in this game is so intuitive. You really have to follow a specific approach to mess it up. People who experience issues will typically build 18MW and 2.35MW cables everywhere, and use a ton of splitters. Once issues pop up, they are difficult to pinpoint, because all the cables are the same, and there are way too many MV splitters. They then attempt to fix the situation by building more substations, powering them off the same overloaded cables. To avoid such a situation, I like to use smaller cables further down the line, so that the network is easier to read, and I know not to split too many branches off a smaller cable. I find the power overly completely useless, because power shortages already become apparent during gameplay long before the overlay will show yellow Voltage. Colours on the line are not informative, either, if you ask me. It's best to check the Voltage at your switches instead. If you've built appropriate cables for each connection, you will never need to check the load on the cables, you can just work your way up the line to locate the source of the issue (assuming the issue is not at the power station, which should always be checked before delving too deep into the intricacies of the network).

[westhamdd]

So, the meter on the left is voltage. The game distinguishes 3 different modes of voltage: Low V: 220-230 V. Most buildings are measured as LV and LV is delivered via substations. Medium V: 22-110 kV. You will see this on transformers, switches and substations. MV is delivered via transformers, switches and MV lines (0.5-2.35 MW). A substation acts as an MV -> LV switch. I don't believe any vanilla buildings require a direct MV connection. And finally High V: This will show as 110 kV need on some buildings such as Steel Mill that required a direct HV connection. HV switches and transformers will also show 110 kV.

[itsacorporatething]

I think the voltage meter is useful for seeing if there are power problems. Voltage with drop or fluctuate if there is more power demand than supply. Voltage should be constant and maxed out. This is also how the power grid works IRL. Grid operators monitor the voltage and turn on more power production when the voltage drops.

In game I have issues with intermittent sources of power like incinerators or wind power messing with the voltage. I use a HV priority switch with the power plant and imported power as imputes to help with the problem, but I wish there were a better way.

[fastfiddler]

Within the last year, after playing Oxygen Not Included, I was telling my wife, I wish there was a builder game like Factorio or Cities Skylines that had a more intricate electrical system. Then I find this game. Obviously, it is very gamified and dumbed down from real power distribution. But, this is still a really good representation of how you would distribute broad scale power.

Great video too. To the point. Not too long, not too short.

[Luxiku]

Also, you should remember that you can't have more than 19 transformers connected in series. The 20th transformer will simply not work and won't provide any electricity.
It's hard-coded into the game!!

[sargantana]

Very good videos - but imo the music volume is too high. It's hard for me to understand what you're saying.

[teapot]

I wonder if your interested in creating a series of Workers and Recourses from the beginning! I think with the way you narrate is excellent!
I would be very interested in watching since I’m unable to play the game myself. I’m constantly looking for new content on this game!

[ChevCheliosDE]

Yeah electroboom is such a nice youtuber

[westhamdd]

It is also useful to understand that in the vanilla game, 15 MW is the most that can be delivered to a transformer. Transformers have a single HV connection and 6 MV connections with a max 2.5 MW draw.

[Adept]

Could have mentioned how to check how much power each building uses.
In the bottom right corner of the megawatt graphic, with the indicator needle, is a number xx.x it is the MW (amount of bandwidth) that a building will consume/produce at maximum occupancy. This MW value is also listed in the tooltip screen when you hover over a building at the build menu.

[Neuroaktivo]

you can provide a 0.65 and a 1.85 to a substation to get the exact 2.5MW a substation can handle.

[stevehildebert]

Hey! Just wanted to let you know that Voltage isn’t necessarily the amount of power produced, but the amount of power produced relative to demand
If you hook some renewable energy sources up to an export station and crank the output up to 100%, you can see that power output in watts is incredibly unstable *and* that the voltage is ~0. In order to drive electricity, like in real life, you need a relatively higher total power produced on one end to power going out on the other end, and the only way to reliably manage that for non-border points is controlling how much wattage is used in certain regions.

[johnmcclane]

Oversimplification of course, but this is the way electricity works in real life, they are called: high voltage lines and low voltage lines.

[Izmael]

I would like to see proper setup how to use all available electricity from power plant. It says that coal power plant produces like 1400 Mwh of power (I guess it is daily). To convert megawatt hours to megawatts, the number of hours must also be known - lets say it is 24. Divide the number of megawatt hours by the number of hours. The resulting number is the number of megawatts = 1400/24 = 58, 333 MW so one coal plant can feed about 3x 18 MW wires (54 MW) but in game it has only 2 high voltage connections but also 4x medium connection wires is 2, 35 * = 9, 4. So it is 18+18+9, 4 = 45, 4. It is just weird. If you split one high voltage into 2 to have 3 high voltages (54 MW) it means you can use 4, 3 MW more that means almost 2 medium 2, 35W or 2, 35 with weaker 1, 5MW to have 54+2, 35+1, 5MW = 57, 85MW which is basically the limit of coal power plant. Is that right?

[mattdill]

In future videos, could you turn the game’s music down a bit? It’s a little overwhelming at times when trying to hear the speaking.

[McGovern]

I don't see the wires showing wattage now. Did something change?

[Moosemoose]

What I dont understand is how a powerplant can produce so much, but only have one or two connections for large power lines. At max you can only move 18-36mW when power plants produce so much more. How does this work?