Power output and consumption calibration

[jamespetts]

I have noticed that, in some paksets, the electricity consumption of industries is disproportionate to the power output of power stations. The coal mine in PakGerman, for example, consumes only fractionally less power than the power station produces! In Pak64, there are a number of industries that consume orders of magnitude more power than the coal power station produces. I am currently trying to build electrical consumption figures for towns into Simutrans-Experimental, and it is rather difficult to calibrate the settings with such consumption figures. Is there any particular reason why industries' power consumption figures were set so high?

[prissi]

A power station produces roughly 4 times their production. Thus it can sustain three additional industries apart for its supplier on average.

In the newer version since 101 the electricity percentage will give you enough electricity to supply the given percentage of all industry. Thus the cities needed to be included in this calculation too, when you make changes.

[jamespetts]

Prissi,

ahh, thank you very much: that is most useful information about the percentage. Tell me: I have just implemented code to make the electricity consumption of cities vary over time using data specified from an external file, based on the format of the speedbonus.tab file. Does the electricity percent continually apply such that new power stations are built to cope with new industries as they are built? And does it take account of each power station's individual capacity, as well as the demand from each industry, or does it take generalised figures for both?

Thank you very much for your help on that one :-)

[prissi]

I would treat cities as consumers with production = inhabitants. This seems like a reasonable number (an would naturally limit growth of very big towns.)

[jamespetts]

Ahh, yes, that's what I'm doing, albeit applying a modifier factor based on the timeline (electricity consumption increasing over time). But can you let me know whether Simutrans keeps up with new factories with the "percent electricity" setting?

Suppose, for example, the "percent electricity" is set to 100. At the beginning of the game, there are, say, 12 factories, and 3 power plants, enough to supply all those factories. If, some  years later, a further chain of 3 factories was built, would another power plant be built alongside it (along with coal mines, oil wells, etc., necessary to provide fuel) to ensure that there is always enough electricity to power all factories?

[Dwachs]

the answer to your question can be found in bauer/fabrikbauer.cc function
int fabrikbauer_t::increase_industry_density( karte_t *welt, bool tell_me )

if less then the given percentage of productivity can be covered by power plants then the next generated industry chain is a new power plant.

[jamespetts]

Dwachs,

ahh, thank you, that is most helpful. That makes my job of adapting the function much easier!