All cities need electricity in Cities: Skylines 2 to function. Citizens complain if there isn’t power, construction won’t function, and blackouts disrupt business operations. As your city grows, you must continue building new sources of power to supply electricity. Each power source has positives and negatives, which you must consider when thinking about the long-term viability of your city. Here’s how electricity works in Cities: Skylines 2 and how you can power your cities effectively.
Different Electricity Sources
When you first start building your new city, you have two electricity sources available:
- Wind Turbine – produces low noise pollution, but power is weather-dependent
- Small Coal Power Plant – cheap electricity but lots of air pollution
You can use your Development Points to unlock more power sources, which include:
- Gas Power Plant – cheap electricity supply with moderate air pollution
- Coal Power Plant – more power than its smaller version, but produces lots of air, ground, and noise pollution
- Nuclear Power Plant – massive amounts of energy with low emissions, but requires well-educated workers
- Geothermal Power Plant – Underground heat provides energy with some air and noise pollution
- Hydroelectric Power Plant – Converts flowing water into electricity with some noise pollution
- Solar Power Plant – Large energy generation with no ground or air pollution though it is weather-dependent
There are no perfectly “clean” sources of energy; there’s always some pollution being produced. The Wind Turbine can be placed anywhere on the map, but it’s ineffective if the wind doesn’t blow. A Geothermal Power Plant requires a location with underground heat or can’t be built. Flowing water is essential for the Hydroelectric Power Plant as you can’t build it near the shoreline. Solar Power Plants can be built anywhere but requires large amounts of land.
Gas, Coal, and Nuclear Power Plants can be built anywhere if you have the space. Be careful of building them near residential or commercial areas as your citizens will complain about the pollution. It can also affect their health, hurting the economy in the long run.
How Electricity Works To Power Your City
A power source can generate electricity on its own, but you must connect it to your city’s power grid. You must connect power cables from the power source to the grid and ensure the connection actually works. If you don’t see a notice that your power supply has expanded, redo your connection. Use landscaping tools if the land is too steep for a cable.
If you have a power plant capable of supplying high-voltage electricity, you must build power lines to transport that energy to a transformer. That transformer converts the energy into low-voltage power, which can safely power buildings. Supplying high-voltage energy directly can cause problems, and you must be careful.
