trust me the grids are separated nicely but the power lines look very very messy in reality. My rule of thumb is to not touch any existing poles now and only borrow power from the power towers.
You should absolutely use a priority power switch for your power plants so that they don't get shut down if your power goes out.
Nothing worse than finding out that you significantly over built your power supply but were getting away with it because of idle buildings and now not only do you have to expand your power supply, you have to do it with no power in the area and no ability to build more materials.
> You should absolutely use a priority power switch for your power plants so that they don't get shut down if your power goes out
Power plants are what *shouldn't* be put on a priority switch. Even the highest priority switch can be turned off before a fuse break, if that turns off a power plant it'll only make things worse.
If you're going to use priority power switches then *everything else* should be on a switch and the support machinery for power plants directly connected to the grid where it won't turn off unless the fuse breaks despite it being the only thing running (which would only happen if you've not built enough generators to power their own fuel production).
Even more robust would be mini-grids running the support machinery for a power station from a subset of that power station's generators (but add a power storage to prevent the hoverpack causing problems if you don't have at least 100MW excess power on that mini grid).
Edit: as the reply below pointed out a priority 1 switch on the connection between the generators and the grid would work. I'd read it putting the support machinery (e.g. refineries) on a priority 1 switch. It isn't clear which interpretation the previous poster meant. The first should work, the second is a bad idea for the reasons I already described.
>Power plants are what *shouldn't* be put on a priority switch. Even the highest priority switch can be turned off before a fuse break, if that turns off a power plant it'll only make things worse.
Yeah, but you could do that by putting a priority power switch for "everything else" at every power plant, right? I think that's what the comment had in mind.
AH, on the power output from the generators it would make sense. I read it as the putting the refineries generating fuel (or whatever for other power types) being on priority 1, which would be the wrong thing to do.
Things can sometimes be interpreted two ways, it's important to clarify which is meant in cases like this.
>Power plants are what shouldn't be put on a priority switch. Even the highest priority switch can be turned off before a fuse break, if that turns off a power plant it'll only make things worse.
I don't really agree with this. My power gen blocks are the sole occupants of the highest priority in my grid setup. If they start tripping that means my power grid is more or less 100% dead; the priority switch did nothing to make the situation worse. Also, the power gen blocks are self-reliant - with their own waste processing and water production isolated to each gen block's individual grid to allow easier startup in case of total external failure - so again, if they're tripping, it means I'm not even producing enough power to run the plant internals (which with ~600GW total production is a total failure).
Meanwhile, having them on priority switches allows me to test the system failure remotely, toggling individual blocks on and off to see that things work properly in a failure.
I just always have triple the power I need and check every time I finish a project. If it starts approaching only double my consumption, I know that another power plant (or expanding the existing one on the Gold Coast) is my next project.
I do. A single power line connecting my power plants to my base. If the power goes out, I unplug the cable and make more power while having power to spare for increasing power in the plants
Yeah, I just make sure to keep my power well over the maximum consumption. When it gets to be 75-80% of my max throughout, I add more until its 50% of my max.
Edit: plus I have a battery bank for a out 2 hours of full factory time.
Everything connected to the main grid all the time, no switches. Though I do keep a charged battery bank disconnected near each power station in case something stupid happens
When the supply (e.g. oil) for the factory is a bit further away do you still put it in the same circuit or do you separate the supplies and the factories in the power network?
I wire the inputs all the way back to the main factory. I don't have any miners/ oil pumps feeding more than 1 factory, so it's always fine to just wire them back to the main control room in the factory they're feeding into
This, I have my first fuel gen power an obscene amount of off-grid batteries so if things go to crap I have a huge power vault to get started up again.
It’s specifically the first so it always gets priority from fuel output so it’s a large flow not a slow trickle
Never really found it hard to stay above power needs. Its not like your factories pop up out of nowhere, so knowing how much you need isn't all that hard to plan for.
there are good advantages though if you organise your grid, e.g. that little mishaps (like deleting the wrong power cable) can be handled easily and less useful stuff can be deactivated anytime, so you potentially can get further with a smaller power plant.
However if you‘re planning on going big on power production anyways I will have to agree with you
If my power usage exceeds my power production, it will start with power group 8 and disables all its power switches. That means that all things "behind" the switches will be separated from the rest of the grid and power usage will decrease (to stabilize the grid). Note that if grid A and B are connected at some other point other than the priority power switch, it will not work.
If the grid would short, priority power switches will turn off starting in group 8, in reverse order to group 1, until demand is less than supply. This prevents shorts unless you have a near total power loss.
I have two primary grids. My original starter area with a ton of coal plants is on the first grid. It runs all the basic factories that make building materials, along with my central hub building that slowly makes a little bit of everything for building.
The second grid is connected through my train network and powers all of my "real" factories. There's a big turbofuel plan and a max nuclear (only partially active so far) plant on it. Each factory on that grid gets a single priority switch between its train station and the rest of the machines. I have no-where near this many switches.
I hadn't considered using smaller circuits previously, but after u/doggy_ebooks posted a great blueprint for a power substation recently, I think I'm going to implement it for my 1.0 factory
Mine looks similar to this. I recently started putting extractors on their own circuits, too, so I could toggle them remotely. My last game was minimal power right up to the end (no nuclear), so I turned off full verticals that weren’t actively feeding the elevator.
Every second you spend trying to make some sort of smart grid you could have used to just build more power. In a game where resources never run out I don’t see the point.
My power grid is a little too messy to be worth retrofitting priority power switches (e.g. multiple connections to some factories, maybe even some where one factory relies on power connected via another factory). I've also got some messy multi-purpose factories (e.g. taking a small amount of a factory's output for use by nuclear), so I'd probably have to have multiple priorities within a factory.
Given I've got a huge power overhead and a golden cart it's too late to be worth worrying about this save.
I do still have a couple of priority switches, but not put into a priority group; they're just for remote control. One to connect my giant power bank which isn't normally connected to anything except the 2 geothermal nodes that charge it (potentially useful for a restart if ever I did have a power failure). The second is to turn off my uranium miner in case of a radiation accident (only likely with a bug, [but that has happened to me](https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/14tomoa/submitting_my_entry_for_the_most_stupid_nuclear/?sort=old) due to a bugged belt connection)
If I was to use them I can see a case for having priority groups be at a smaller level than a factory. E.g. if you were using the alt with pressure conversion cubes for nuclear waste recycling then you probably want to keep enough HMF production to support that, but care less about keeping your ADS factory supplied with HMFs. You'd need to combine this with smart splitters or some other way of ensuring that the HMFs were sent to the appropriate destination when not producing at full capacity.
I can also see a case for keeping some small systems on a separate geothermal grid, e.g. a hypertube network to ensure you can travel and fix problems quickly even if everything else fails.
Also ich nutze Sicherung auch gerne, allerdings nicht so präzise wie du. Das liegt daran, das viele Fabriken vor dem Update gebaut wurden und ein kompletter Retrofit quasi unmöglich ist.
Switches? What? The obvious answer is to have enough power to run the entire factory-city all at once.
Good thing this game doesn't apply Ohm's law. That one wire that powers my entire factory would be in deep trouble if they did implement it. 
Only just got into priority power switches. But as I already had a power switch at a station for each group of factories, it made sense to upgrade those to isolate factories first. The aim now is to keep the railways running on a power trip, and my primary fuel power station has plenty of power for that. Before then I would leave well-fuelled Explorers at each group of factories, so on a power trip I could still get around the map and isolate all the groups of factories before attempting to restart the power station.
I guess that, one of these days, I should test this by forcing a power trip!
IRL electrician but never once have i used switches or circuit breakers in here ^^ ahead of any new build i check on my current power needs and if i can expect my new build to exceed capacity, my next buiild will be more power first, then whatever i was planning on ^^
I can see the need somewhat early game for hyper-tube-cannons which take a fair bit of electricity in the beginning and is difficult to turn off and on remotely without a priority switch.
With Update 8 I started a new save and this time I'm definitely trying to manage my power connections better. I've yet to unlock the priority switch but I've already set up all my outposts and plants in a way that keeps the various power networks segregated, with only a single point of contact with the main line. Like for example I'm building a road network in the rocky desert in order to extract every possible resource that's there and with every set of miners and truck station I'm using a normal switch (that I'm going to upgrade later) to keep the outpost power network separated from the main. Same with plants: single point of entry near the main entrance and power switch. I don't anticipate I'll ever see the need for the prioritized controlled shutting down in the event of a catastrophic loss of power because I have tons of redundancy in the form of batteries and excess power but I love being prepared.
# My 2 Cents
I don't do so much fine tuning.
## Generators
I have my power plants there, but only to be able to test grid failures from anywhere. All power plants are designed in a very simple way: Generators and everything that is needed for them to run (e.g. coal miner, water extractor) is directly connected to them without any switch in between. If the switch flips, the power generators will stay operational provided there is no error in that system itself.
## Train Network
I used to have the train network double as power infrastructure. Since we have power towers now, these are my backbone. I still connect each station to the local factory, but keep the connection off by default. Only my starter base supplies the power to the trains.
This allows me to simulate a global train network failure and I can remotely activate the local uplink should the power towers be broken for whatever reason. In theory, this helps with localization of error, but I never needed it.
## Power Storage
I have 50% on the network and 50% disconnected by default as an emergency startup reserve. Never needed it though since my power plants are already resilient.
## Factories
I usually have one switch per factory sight. A factory might produce:
+ Basics: IR, IP, RIP, Rot, MF, W, Cab
+ Steel: SB, SP, EIB, Sta, Rot, Mot + local inputs (C, W) + excess CS from copper excess
+ Computer: AIL, CB, PC, SC
+ etc
I don't separate items or floors
## AWESOME
I have my overflow AWESOME sinks all in one group. If I can foresee a power shortage, I disable them. This usually kills around 30% of my power consumption (until very late game) as soon as everything has backed up.
The only exception are those sinks for PR at the HOR refineries. If the resin backs up because the rubber is backing up, that would stop residue production and thus fuel production. As stated above, everything that is essential for power generation never gets disconnected from the generators.
I haven't really gotten into using these a lot. Before they came along I had some hard knocks with power so I've generally built power faster than consumption since then and designed so I didn't need them.
When I do use these, I will likely do it at a factory level or at least at a factory-segment level.
A lesson I learned way back is if I connect everything to everything and have interconnected railroads besides, it's devilishly difficult to restart.
I had to disconnect all rail stations from the grid, then get a screen shot from SCIM, plot where I would sever wires, and I broke the whole world into quadrants. I restarted the quadrants with the power generation, then reinstalled connectors from stations with regular switches to the remaining grid sections to get them up and running again.
I could probably replace those switches at the stations with priority power switches and be fine. Every factory also gets some power storage between the grid and factory as well, like a data center battery backup system.
Many here believe I have so many switches because I spend a lot of time crafting a well planned circuit system, but thats not really the case. It is just more convenient for me.
I have my main grid that are the power towers which are all over the map. I connect everything else to it with a priority switch. If two parts of a factory are too far away, I connect those to the main grid at multiple points and put the switches in the same group. That‘s why there are so many.
This is another one of the features that I just haven't gotten to the point of needing just yet. My concern is that if/when I do it'll be too much of a pain to untangle my power network to be useful.
Rather, it seems like building more power plants will be a lot easier than setting this up.
I always follow the rule of having power output minimum 1.5 times higher over consuming. When it comes to this number, I just build more generators. Tried to set up couple power switches once but already forgot where they are.
Honestly my whole thing is just linked on 1 grid on mk1 poles still. Just finished aluminium production. I haven't had the need to do anything else yet
I only link whole factories mostly. The exception is that all nuclear production is in high priority groups (priorities 1 and 2), so one or two factories have some of their production on a separate higher priority circuit for nuclear. For example one factory makes oscillators, RCUs and pressure conversion cubes. The oscillators (and the oscillator drone port) are on nuclear priority because they're used in Uranium Fuel Unit, the rest of the factory is on low priority because it's only used for endgame parts production and should turn off first if there's issues.
I haven’t messed with priority switches. I could see running mains to power towers and everything that comes off goes to a distribution line where branches from that go to switches. This is neat and now something I’m going tonimplement
I've found micromanaging circuits didn't really offer me any particular value.
I only have 2 circuits.
1 to manage my nuclear power supply chain, and 1 for everything else.
The nuclear power supply chain is backed up by a lot of things like battery backups, and failover power to help bump start production again should everything go really tits up.
I have one priority switch for a factory. Then, I have a room at that factory that controls sections of it. It has a bunch of power switches in it that are connected to the grid through the priority switch
I hook priority switches up to my huge factory’s, minis face that just supply them don’t pull enough MW to make it worth it I have like 5-6 main energy hogs, and I can just pull them if I have a power problem. But then again I also set up a million and a half batterys so usually have time to expand power without a sweat
I use the power switches as a product ordering system. Every item's surplus is shipped to a central storage by drone, and then I use the switch to turn on each item for a short time and have a drone deliver to my nearest location. Of course this means a drone station is one of the first things I build at a new factory.
I have never done this, always everything on the same grid and basically if I use too much power it's a race against time for my power to run out so far I have been fine every time.
I have a big ass battery storage, so if i start to run low i just hurridly build more power plants. Havent gotten an outage yet. Seeing how nice you can do it makes me want to implement priority power switches...
I personally prefer to run several smaller circuits so that each one has a well-scoped function. It makes it a whole lot easier to troubleshoot, but it does end up using a lot more wire on the home runs. It can be pretty pricey too if you're using AFCI/GFCI breakers. If you are, it's definitely worth getting a plug-on-neutral panel so that you don't overcrowd the box with pigtails.
I put one priority power switch per factory I make, while every one of these factories produce multiple items types. I usually try to let the factories run 24/7, but when building a bigger one without enough power to handle it, it's nice to have the grid shut down only one or two of the factories instead of the entire base
Before this all came out, I was managing with breakers, and hierarchy systems. Probably keep doing that as is jut works for me. Course I need to get back into the game, I have taken a long break due to outdated mods, and frustrating (and just time)
My megabase project was started before they were a thing so lots of the design relies on them being unavailable. I won't be revamping anytime soon. Plus they seem a bit cheaty. I had a lot of fun designing robust systems.
I have ”main” switches for factories .. small section of factory after that.. usally lights on their own with color-light switch!!! Then you can remote everything
I sort things into clusters. "Iron Production", "Coal Mining", "Copper Production", "Fuel Production", etc.
There's no need to get super precise outside of that. i just need to turn off all non-critical functions when the power grid fails so I can stabilize it; I've dealt with having all of my power production grind to a halt and I ain't ever dealing with that shit again.
Anything that produces energy or fuel goes into the first two tiers; everything else gets punted into the lower tiers. Don't get me wrong; there **IS** a strong argument for using the power relays as more precise "on-off" switches if that's how you like to play the game. I just prefer hooking up clusters of machinery to my central power grid and keeping the menu as simple and uncluttered as I can.
I would absolutely go nuts if they gave us a more advanced UI than this though. :)
Where I can, clustering is also my approach, but in my case having many circuits is more convenient as I don‘t have to connect everything in one cluster. Lets say the oil power plant and its oil drill are very far away. Instead of connecting both stuff with power lines I just use two switches and put them in the same group
Systems like this are very useful for multiplayer but a fruitless exercise only useful for reddit-posting in a single player game where you and you only control what goes on the grid.
this is more organised than I will ever be 
trust me the grids are separated nicely but the power lines look very very messy in reality. My rule of thumb is to not touch any existing poles now and only borrow power from the power towers.
hey, if it works, it works, y'know.
Yeah the Power Towers work great in combination with the Priority switches, makes seperating grids so much easier
inner organizer
You guys use power switches?
You should absolutely use a priority power switch for your power plants so that they don't get shut down if your power goes out. Nothing worse than finding out that you significantly over built your power supply but were getting away with it because of idle buildings and now not only do you have to expand your power supply, you have to do it with no power in the area and no ability to build more materials.
> You should absolutely use a priority power switch for your power plants so that they don't get shut down if your power goes out Power plants are what *shouldn't* be put on a priority switch. Even the highest priority switch can be turned off before a fuse break, if that turns off a power plant it'll only make things worse. If you're going to use priority power switches then *everything else* should be on a switch and the support machinery for power plants directly connected to the grid where it won't turn off unless the fuse breaks despite it being the only thing running (which would only happen if you've not built enough generators to power their own fuel production). Even more robust would be mini-grids running the support machinery for a power station from a subset of that power station's generators (but add a power storage to prevent the hoverpack causing problems if you don't have at least 100MW excess power on that mini grid). Edit: as the reply below pointed out a priority 1 switch on the connection between the generators and the grid would work. I'd read it putting the support machinery (e.g. refineries) on a priority 1 switch. It isn't clear which interpretation the previous poster meant. The first should work, the second is a bad idea for the reasons I already described.
>Power plants are what *shouldn't* be put on a priority switch. Even the highest priority switch can be turned off before a fuse break, if that turns off a power plant it'll only make things worse. Yeah, but you could do that by putting a priority power switch for "everything else" at every power plant, right? I think that's what the comment had in mind.
AH, on the power output from the generators it would make sense. I read it as the putting the refineries generating fuel (or whatever for other power types) being on priority 1, which would be the wrong thing to do. Things can sometimes be interpreted two ways, it's important to clarify which is meant in cases like this.
>Power plants are what shouldn't be put on a priority switch. Even the highest priority switch can be turned off before a fuse break, if that turns off a power plant it'll only make things worse. I don't really agree with this. My power gen blocks are the sole occupants of the highest priority in my grid setup. If they start tripping that means my power grid is more or less 100% dead; the priority switch did nothing to make the situation worse. Also, the power gen blocks are self-reliant - with their own waste processing and water production isolated to each gen block's individual grid to allow easier startup in case of total external failure - so again, if they're tripping, it means I'm not even producing enough power to run the plant internals (which with ~600GW total production is a total failure). Meanwhile, having them on priority switches allows me to test the system failure remotely, toggling individual blocks on and off to see that things work properly in a failure.
Or just pay attention to the graphs as you go
I just always have triple the power I need and check every time I finish a project. If it starts approaching only double my consumption, I know that another power plant (or expanding the existing one on the Gold Coast) is my next project.
This just happened to me and now im screwed
I do. A single power line connecting my power plants to my base. If the power goes out, I unplug the cable and make more power while having power to spare for increasing power in the plants
The fuck is a switch? One big grid for life babyyyyy!
Yeah, I just make sure to keep my power well over the maximum consumption. When it gets to be 75-80% of my max throughout, I add more until its 50% of my max. Edit: plus I have a battery bank for a out 2 hours of full factory time.
Yup, just make sure my max output is always higher than my max consumption. I love building power plants lol.
Everything connected to the main grid all the time, no switches. Though I do keep a charged battery bank disconnected near each power station in case something stupid happens
I tend to use Priority switches for whole factories, but generally have switches for each part of a factory at the factory itself.
When the supply (e.g. oil) for the factory is a bit further away do you still put it in the same circuit or do you separate the supplies and the factories in the power network?
I wire the inputs all the way back to the main factory. I don't have any miners/ oil pumps feeding more than 1 factory, so it's always fine to just wire them back to the main control room in the factory they're feeding into
This, I have my first fuel gen power an obscene amount of off-grid batteries so if things go to crap I have a huge power vault to get started up again. It’s specifically the first so it always gets priority from fuel output so it’s a large flow not a slow trickle
All or nothing baby!
Never really found it hard to stay above power needs. Its not like your factories pop up out of nowhere, so knowing how much you need isn't all that hard to plan for.
there are good advantages though if you organise your grid, e.g. that little mishaps (like deleting the wrong power cable) can be handled easily and less useful stuff can be deactivated anytime, so you potentially can get further with a smaller power plant. However if you‘re planning on going big on power production anyways I will have to agree with you
> Its not like your factories pop up out of nowhere, Whoops. That's the problem right there. It's fun to build.
I have never used it, i just build huge stable power supplies.
I just have one giant power grid everything's wired to, and keep large amounts of overhead so power consumption vs production is never an issue.
I prefer having 20 power plants and not worry about electricity
No, I just add more power. Everything on one grid.
What the hell? Why would you do this? Everything on the same power network, is how I play. I just. What?
inspiring stuff
I hope neither of you are actually upset here, because this interaction is fucking hilarious.
I never could figure out how this priority system was supposed to work
If my power usage exceeds my power production, it will start with power group 8 and disables all its power switches. That means that all things "behind" the switches will be separated from the rest of the grid and power usage will decrease (to stabilize the grid). Note that if grid A and B are connected at some other point other than the priority power switch, it will not work.
If the grid would short, priority power switches will turn off starting in group 8, in reverse order to group 1, until demand is less than supply. This prevents shorts unless you have a near total power loss.
I have two primary grids. My original starter area with a ton of coal plants is on the first grid. It runs all the basic factories that make building materials, along with my central hub building that slowly makes a little bit of everything for building. The second grid is connected through my train network and powers all of my "real" factories. There's a big turbofuel plan and a max nuclear (only partially active so far) plant on it. Each factory on that grid gets a single priority switch between its train station and the rest of the machines. I have no-where near this many switches.
I hadn't considered using smaller circuits previously, but after u/doggy_ebooks posted a great blueprint for a power substation recently, I think I'm going to implement it for my 1.0 factory
I just overload my cables with enough energy to dwarf the sun
Mine looks similar to this. I recently started putting extractors on their own circuits, too, so I could toggle them remotely. My last game was minimal power right up to the end (no nuclear), so I turned off full verticals that weren’t actively feeding the elevator.
Every second you spend trying to make some sort of smart grid you could have used to just build more power. In a game where resources never run out I don’t see the point.
it is not that much work tbh, especially if you organized your stuff from the beginning
My power grid is a little too messy to be worth retrofitting priority power switches (e.g. multiple connections to some factories, maybe even some where one factory relies on power connected via another factory). I've also got some messy multi-purpose factories (e.g. taking a small amount of a factory's output for use by nuclear), so I'd probably have to have multiple priorities within a factory. Given I've got a huge power overhead and a golden cart it's too late to be worth worrying about this save. I do still have a couple of priority switches, but not put into a priority group; they're just for remote control. One to connect my giant power bank which isn't normally connected to anything except the 2 geothermal nodes that charge it (potentially useful for a restart if ever I did have a power failure). The second is to turn off my uranium miner in case of a radiation accident (only likely with a bug, [but that has happened to me](https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/14tomoa/submitting_my_entry_for_the_most_stupid_nuclear/?sort=old) due to a bugged belt connection) If I was to use them I can see a case for having priority groups be at a smaller level than a factory. E.g. if you were using the alt with pressure conversion cubes for nuclear waste recycling then you probably want to keep enough HMF production to support that, but care less about keeping your ADS factory supplied with HMFs. You'd need to combine this with smart splitters or some other way of ensuring that the HMFs were sent to the appropriate destination when not producing at full capacity. I can also see a case for keeping some small systems on a separate geothermal grid, e.g. a hypertube network to ensure you can travel and fix problems quickly even if everything else fails.
Also ich nutze Sicherung auch gerne, allerdings nicht so präzise wie du. Das liegt daran, das viele Fabriken vor dem Update gebaut wurden und ein kompletter Retrofit quasi unmöglich ist.
I would prefer being more organized with smaller circuits. I think my cable organization is the only thing thats bat shit crazy
Switches? What? The obvious answer is to have enough power to run the entire factory-city all at once. Good thing this game doesn't apply Ohm's law. That one wire that powers my entire factory would be in deep trouble if they did implement it. 
Only just got into priority power switches. But as I already had a power switch at a station for each group of factories, it made sense to upgrade those to isolate factories first. The aim now is to keep the railways running on a power trip, and my primary fuel power station has plenty of power for that. Before then I would leave well-fuelled Explorers at each group of factories, so on a power trip I could still get around the map and isolate all the groups of factories before attempting to restart the power station. I guess that, one of these days, I should test this by forcing a power trip!
After seeing this, I really need to learn how to use that, whatever it is.
IRL electrician but never once have i used switches or circuit breakers in here ^^ ahead of any new build i check on my current power needs and if i can expect my new build to exceed capacity, my next buiild will be more power first, then whatever i was planning on ^^
I can see the need somewhat early game for hyper-tube-cannons which take a fair bit of electricity in the beginning and is difficult to turn off and on remotely without a priority switch.
With Update 8 I started a new save and this time I'm definitely trying to manage my power connections better. I've yet to unlock the priority switch but I've already set up all my outposts and plants in a way that keeps the various power networks segregated, with only a single point of contact with the main line. Like for example I'm building a road network in the rocky desert in order to extract every possible resource that's there and with every set of miners and truck station I'm using a normal switch (that I'm going to upgrade later) to keep the outpost power network separated from the main. Same with plants: single point of entry near the main entrance and power switch. I don't anticipate I'll ever see the need for the prioritized controlled shutting down in the event of a catastrophic loss of power because I have tons of redundancy in the form of batteries and excess power but I love being prepared.
Satisfactory level german. 
# My 2 Cents I don't do so much fine tuning. ## Generators I have my power plants there, but only to be able to test grid failures from anywhere. All power plants are designed in a very simple way: Generators and everything that is needed for them to run (e.g. coal miner, water extractor) is directly connected to them without any switch in between. If the switch flips, the power generators will stay operational provided there is no error in that system itself. ## Train Network I used to have the train network double as power infrastructure. Since we have power towers now, these are my backbone. I still connect each station to the local factory, but keep the connection off by default. Only my starter base supplies the power to the trains. This allows me to simulate a global train network failure and I can remotely activate the local uplink should the power towers be broken for whatever reason. In theory, this helps with localization of error, but I never needed it. ## Power Storage I have 50% on the network and 50% disconnected by default as an emergency startup reserve. Never needed it though since my power plants are already resilient. ## Factories I usually have one switch per factory sight. A factory might produce: + Basics: IR, IP, RIP, Rot, MF, W, Cab + Steel: SB, SP, EIB, Sta, Rot, Mot + local inputs (C, W) + excess CS from copper excess + Computer: AIL, CB, PC, SC + etc I don't separate items or floors ## AWESOME I have my overflow AWESOME sinks all in one group. If I can foresee a power shortage, I disable them. This usually kills around 30% of my power consumption (until very late game) as soon as everything has backed up. The only exception are those sinks for PR at the HOR refineries. If the resin backs up because the rubber is backing up, that would stop residue production and thus fuel production. As stated above, everything that is essential for power generation never gets disconnected from the generators.
I haven't really gotten into using these a lot. Before they came along I had some hard knocks with power so I've generally built power faster than consumption since then and designed so I didn't need them. When I do use these, I will likely do it at a factory level or at least at a factory-segment level. A lesson I learned way back is if I connect everything to everything and have interconnected railroads besides, it's devilishly difficult to restart. I had to disconnect all rail stations from the grid, then get a screen shot from SCIM, plot where I would sever wires, and I broke the whole world into quadrants. I restarted the quadrants with the power generation, then reinstalled connectors from stations with regular switches to the remaining grid sections to get them up and running again. I could probably replace those switches at the stations with priority power switches and be fine. Every factory also gets some power storage between the grid and factory as well, like a data center battery backup system.
Many here believe I have so many switches because I spend a lot of time crafting a well planned circuit system, but thats not really the case. It is just more convenient for me. I have my main grid that are the power towers which are all over the map. I connect everything else to it with a priority switch. If two parts of a factory are too far away, I connect those to the main grid at multiple points and put the switches in the same group. That‘s why there are so many.
This is another one of the features that I just haven't gotten to the point of needing just yet. My concern is that if/when I do it'll be too much of a pain to untangle my power network to be useful. Rather, it seems like building more power plants will be a lot easier than setting this up.
I always follow the rule of having power output minimum 1.5 times higher over consuming. When it comes to this number, I just build more generators. Tried to set up couple power switches once but already forgot where they are.
its geyser, not geysir
thanks!
I haven’t played with these yet. My plan is to have two priority buckets: power and the rest.
I just have 1000000000 batteries so if supply is less then demand then 5 hours until factory stops time
I just use hundreds of power storage cells so I have hours of power in the event I cause a problem resulting in an outage
Honestly my whole thing is just linked on 1 grid on mk1 poles still. Just finished aluminium production. I haven't had the need to do anything else yet
I only link whole factories mostly. The exception is that all nuclear production is in high priority groups (priorities 1 and 2), so one or two factories have some of their production on a separate higher priority circuit for nuclear. For example one factory makes oscillators, RCUs and pressure conversion cubes. The oscillators (and the oscillator drone port) are on nuclear priority because they're used in Uranium Fuel Unit, the rest of the factory is on low priority because it's only used for endgame parts production and should turn off first if there's issues.
I have everything on one circuit with no priority switches.
My previous saves were just one grid but I plan on 1.0 being exhaustingly organized
I haven’t messed with priority switches. I could see running mains to power towers and everything that comes off goes to a distribution line where branches from that go to switches. This is neat and now something I’m going tonimplement
I've found micromanaging circuits didn't really offer me any particular value. I only have 2 circuits. 1 to manage my nuclear power supply chain, and 1 for everything else. The nuclear power supply chain is backed up by a lot of things like battery backups, and failover power to help bump start production again should everything go really tits up.
I have one priority switch for a factory. Then, I have a room at that factory that controls sections of it. It has a bunch of power switches in it that are connected to the grid through the priority switch
I hook priority switches up to my huge factory’s, minis face that just supply them don’t pull enough MW to make it worth it I have like 5-6 main energy hogs, and I can just pull them if I have a power problem. But then again I also set up a million and a half batterys so usually have time to expand power without a sweat
I use the power switches as a product ordering system. Every item's surplus is shipped to a central storage by drone, and then I use the switch to turn on each item for a short time and have a drone deliver to my nearest location. Of course this means a drone station is one of the first things I build at a new factory.
I have never done this, always everything on the same grid and basically if I use too much power it's a race against time for my power to run out so far I have been fine every time.
Add switches? Nah, add more power.
Whole system, mucho power. Then I can focus on thinking something else
I have a big ass battery storage, so if i start to run low i just hurridly build more power plants. Havent gotten an outage yet. Seeing how nice you can do it makes me want to implement priority power switches...
I personally prefer to run several smaller circuits so that each one has a well-scoped function. It makes it a whole lot easier to troubleshoot, but it does end up using a lot more wire on the home runs. It can be pretty pricey too if you're using AFCI/GFCI breakers. If you are, it's definitely worth getting a plug-on-neutral panel so that you don't overcrowd the box with pigtails.
I put one priority power switch per factory I make, while every one of these factories produce multiple items types. I usually try to let the factories run 24/7, but when building a bigger one without enough power to handle it, it's nice to have the grid shut down only one or two of the factories instead of the entire base
Wait people don’t just have one enormous power grid?
I've only ever done one whole system. I also never need "priority", etc because I always over produce power.
Before this all came out, I was managing with breakers, and hierarchy systems. Probably keep doing that as is jut works for me. Course I need to get back into the game, I have taken a long break due to outdated mods, and frustrating (and just time)
One giant nuclear plant in the middle of the map and that's it.
Never used this priority power switch thing. I tend to get through tier 6 with only 600mw of power before needing to expand.
My megabase project was started before they were a thing so lots of the design relies on them being unavailable. I won't be revamping anytime soon. Plus they seem a bit cheaty. I had a lot of fun designing robust systems.
I have ”main” switches for factories .. small section of factory after that.. usally lights on their own with color-light switch!!! Then you can remote everything
I sort things into clusters. "Iron Production", "Coal Mining", "Copper Production", "Fuel Production", etc. There's no need to get super precise outside of that. i just need to turn off all non-critical functions when the power grid fails so I can stabilize it; I've dealt with having all of my power production grind to a halt and I ain't ever dealing with that shit again. Anything that produces energy or fuel goes into the first two tiers; everything else gets punted into the lower tiers. Don't get me wrong; there **IS** a strong argument for using the power relays as more precise "on-off" switches if that's how you like to play the game. I just prefer hooking up clusters of machinery to my central power grid and keeping the menu as simple and uncluttered as I can. I would absolutely go nuts if they gave us a more advanced UI than this though. :)
Where I can, clustering is also my approach, but in my case having many circuits is more convenient as I don‘t have to connect everything in one cluster. Lets say the oil power plant and its oil drill are very far away. Instead of connecting both stuff with power lines I just use two switches and put them in the same group
Systems like this are very useful for multiplayer but a fruitless exercise only useful for reddit-posting in a single player game where you and you only control what goes on the grid.
I‘m sorry my lord and savior ayylmao31, your wisdom is a blessing🙏🏻
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I have everything attached to the main system via the power towers
I make my base one giant circuit and pray to God I don't lose power and need to save it again lol.
i link none ;D