So I've been mulling this over ever since SuperCheese released
Wires several years ago. Go read that link to get a bare basic idea of where I'm going.
Supercheese wrote: ↑13 Nov 2012 09:19
As mentioned
over yonder, making a grf that adds an electricity cargo, produced by power stations and delivered to other industries is entirely within the realm of possibility. Making a new "powerline" railtype with "vehicles" that run on it similar to the PIPE grf's representative "arrows" (or for powerlines, "sparks" feel more appropriate) is also entirely possible.
Building on that, now in 2019 we just got the ability to add many more inputs and outputs for industries, as well as more industries and more cargo slots, which makes adding electricity a no-brainer, and also making it a requirement for cities to grow just like water and food. My basic idea is to keep it simple. A power station accepts certain things to generate power, and all it generates is electricity (maybe district heat?) for direct delivery to industries and to power sub stations within a town zone to fulfill town growth. We can also borrow SuperCheese's idea of different types of "vehicles" representing different power levels.
Where I depart is that I am suggesting that it be a TramType instead of a RailType, for a few reasons. First it immediately offers bi-directional flow of vehicles within a single tile. Second, no dealing with signals, and you can cram as many vehicles as you need to and they'll just queue. Vehicles will flow so fast that it really won't matter. And with up to 64 RaodTypes/TramTypes available, I think visually it just works better.
Wanna make it more fun? Develop both an above-ground version with wires, and an underground version to bury them. And, heck, combine PIPES with it while you're at it, now we can pretend we have buried utilities.
Heck, let's also upgrade our mail system with electronic messaging (which you can go all the way back to the telegraph!) to help move more mail.
Here's a handy timeline of power generation, with some ideas on generation. Yep, I know that my numbers aren't "realistic" but I think they work fine for gameplay. I also know this is a lot, but darn it I've spent the last 8 hours researching the entire history of electrical power production and it just needs mentioned! I probably need more information about gravity damn hydroelectric plants, maybe on oil-fired plants too. And probably most of this doesn't make sense for gameplay.
1881: First hydroelectric plant built on canals comes online. Requires nothing but must be built on river or canal, generates 100 kW/day per turbine.
1882: First coal-fired steam power plant comes online. Requires coal and water, generates 2,000 kW/day.
1888: First wind turbine comes online. Requires nothing, generates 250 kW/day per turbine.
1900: First oil-fired steam power plant comes online. Requires oil/fuel oil and water, generates 1,500 kW/day.
1906: First coal-fired steam turbine comes online. Requires coal and water, generates 3,000 kW/day.
1925: Improved coal-fired steam turbines. Requires coal and water, generates 30,000 kW/day.
1935: Bonneville locks & hydroelectric dam. Requires nothing, must be built on a river with a slope, generates 500 kW/day per turbine.
1939: First gas turbine plant comes online. Requires natural gals, gasoline or chemicals, generates 20,000 kW/day.
1941: Improved wind turbines, requires nothing, generates 1250 kW/day per turbine.
1955: First combined cycle gas/coal turbine power plants. Requires gas/chemicals, coal and water, generates 40,000 kW/day.
1957: First nuclear power plant comes online. Requires uranium, chemicals and water, generates 100,000 kW/day
1960: First full-scale geothermal plant comes online. Requires nothing, but cannot be placed in high lands, generates 1,000 kW/day.
1960: Improved hydroelectric river/canal plants. Requires nothing, must be built on river or canal, generates 1000 kW/day per turbine.
1966: First marine tidal power station comes online. Requires nothing, can only be built on sea, generates 1000 kW/day per turbine.
1968: First solar thermal farm comes online. Requires water, must be built in desert, generates 2,000 kW/day.
1971: First Generation II nuclear power plant comes online. Requires uranium, chemicals and water, generates 145,000 kW/day.
1972: First coal gassification plant comes online. Requires coal and water, generates 120,000 kW/day.
1981: First wind energy farm constructed. Requires nothing, generates 2000 kW/day from each turbine.
1981: Improved solar thermal farms. Requires water, must be built in desert, generates 20,000 kW/day.
1982: First photovoltic solar energy farm constructed. Requires nothing, generates 20,000 kW/day.
1984: Itaipu hydroelectric gravity dam built. Requires nothing, must be built on slope with water, generates 39,000 kW/day.
1985: First Generation III nuclear power plant comes online. Requires uranium, chemicals and water, generates 250,000 kW/day.
1990: Improved biomass power plants. Requires fiber crops, peat, waste from landfills/farms/lumber or sawmills, and water, generates 1000 kW/day.
1991: First offshore wind energy farm constructed. Requires nothing and must be placed on water, generates 3,000 kW/day from each turbine.
2007: Itaipu Hydroelectric gravity dam expands capacity to 255,000 kW/day.
2011: Improved marine tidal power stations. Requires nothing, can only be built on sea, generates 1500 kW/day per turbine.
2013: World's largest biomass power plant constructed. Requires fiber crops, peat, waste from landfills/farms/lumber or sawmills, and water, generates 2,000 kW/day.
2014: World's largest solar thermal farm constructed. Requires water, must be built in desert, generates 40,000 kW/day.
2015: World's largest photovoltic solar energy farm constructed. Requires nothing, generates 50,000 kW/day.
2015: World's largest wind energy farm constructed. Requires nothing, generates 5,000 kW/day from each turbine.
2030: First Generation IV nuclear power plants expected. Requires uranium, chemicals and water, generates 400,000 kW/day.