Captain of Industry – Steam Power Generation Guide

Everything you need to know about steam turbines.

Steam Power Generation

All credit goes to Tamba!

• 1 groundwater pump –> 1 boiler (coal or gas) –> 2 high-pressure turbines (+ 1 low pressure turbine) –> 4 generators (6 with low-pressure turbine) = 2 MW of mechanical power = 1.2 MW of electrical power (3 MW / 1.8 MW with low pressure turbines added).
• Low pressure turbines give you an extra MW of mechanical power for every two high pressure turbines, without using any extra water or fuel.
• Cooling towers let you recycle half the water.
• A shaft can support a maximum of 12 MW of mechanical power (in or out). The order of things on the shaft does not matter.
• Later turbines double all numbers. So when starting out, you should put a maximum of 4 boilers and 4 high-pressure turbines together (4 MW mechanical power). Later, add 2 low-pressure turbines (6MW). After researching Power generation IV, you can add 4 more boilers and upgrade all turbines to reach the maximum of 12 MW. Together with the more efficient generators you get with that research, this will give you 10 MW of electrical power.
• If you need more than 2.4 MW (Power generation II) / 3.6 MW (Power generation III), you should start a new shaft to be prepared for future upgrades.
• Flywheels store mechanical power. The more of them you have, the longer your turbines can stay at either full speed (charging up the flywheels) or turned off (while the flywheels discharge), minimizing the (inefficient) time they spend spinning up. You want at least one flywheel on each shaft that is using turbines with auto-balance set to on (but adding more flywheels never hurts if you have the space and materials for them). If you’re only using turbines with auto-balance set to off, flywheels do absolutely nothing.
• To minimize fuel / water usage, figure out your base load (how much power you’re always using). Disable auto-balance on that many turbines. Set auto-balance to on for all other turbines. Don’t forget the conversion loss when going from mechanical to electrical power (you only get 600 KW per MW with the power generator I, and 833 KW with the power generator II).
• At the endgame, nuclear power only replaces the boilers, you will still be using the same turbines.