Dam causing itself to fail.

[LTPugh]

In one of my recent cities, I decided it would be a good idea to place a damn since it was a largely water map. I found a relatively narrow strip of water along with a fast flowing current that would allow me to generate roughly 140MW!

Needless to say I jumped all over that.

However only a little while later I was checking my electrical supply and I was in the yellow after just adding this new dam. I was rather confused so I went to check on it, thinking perhaps I'd simply not put electrical lines to it. Nope, it was connected to the grid just fine...but it wasn't running. At all.

Now very confused I went to check the water flow and to my surprise, after creating the reservoir behind it the dam hadn't worked because somehow the flow had turned back upon itself, somehow creating no pressure through the dam.

Since it wasn't doing anything for me and I already had bridges nearby, I deleted the dam and a little while later the river was flowing like it had before the dam was in place.

Has anybody else seen something like this?
Was it just bad placement on my part somehow?
Any advice? I don't actually need the power at this point, but it's always nice to have in case you need it. Plus I like the look and feel of dams, but only if they're actually doing something.

 

[Myquandro]

It's bad placement of your part. But it's one of the most difficult things on game, correct placement of a dam. Just search on Google, the forum and YouTube and you will find several useful how to's, tutorials and tips on building dams.

 

[FoodyBorris]

I've read various things about what's happening here, although there still seems a bit of doubt. The start of your river has a water source - which has a particular height. When you place a dam, the water level behind the dam rises a bit. If this new level is higher than the height of the water source supplying the dam, then the water source turns off. Then the water gradually passes through the dam, the height behind the dam becomes less than the height of the water source, water starts to flow again and this cycle repeats. Not guaranteeing its the problem you're getting, but this explanation seems fairly popular.

 

[LTPugh]

Huh, I didn'T even know there was a general issue with dams until I saw this My first couple of dam building projects went off without a hitch, both happily producing electricity before I switched to this new city.

Thanks for answering guys, I'll keep an eye out.

 

[Tossi]

I don't think there is any isuue with dams. I think people don't understand how they work.

When you place the dam it will stop the river from flowing and the water will start to fill the space before the dam as it would in real life.
Dam will not generate any electricity until the water level reaches the top of the dam.
If you build a dam on a river that is realtively flat you will have a hard time filling the space behind dam with water and it may in fact never happen.
The amount of power your dam will generate depends on the difference in water level before and after the dam.
The best places to build dams are those where the river is the steepest and deepest.
It also helps if you make your sewage output help to fill the space before dam with water.

 

[jamiechi]

The best way to learn how to place dams, is to create your own map in the map editor using the terraform tools. Then create a new city to test the map.
Go back to the map and edit as needed. Then back to a new city.
Repeat as necessary. (It can be time consuming. )

 

[Ri0Rdian]

140 MW is terrible considering how much that dam costs in upkeep! You need at least 400-500 MW to be worth it really.

 

[jamiechi]

I am getting between 600 to 800 in a map I made from scratch.
If you copy or move the CO supplied maps to your addon folder, you can load them in the map editor. You can then see where they placed the water sources, and adjust them if needed.

 

[FlyingRoss]

May I suggest my tutorial ..

Others found here
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ties-skylines-tutorials.847446/#post-19097204

 

[Steve B.]

Off topic, but what great info this is:

If you copy or move the CO supplied maps to your addon folder, you can load them in the map editor. You can then see where they placed the water sources, and adjust them if needed.

My best city, so far, was ruined by a train backup on one of my tiles; but it was being caused by a problem in an unbuildable area of the map so I couldn't fix it.

Thnx a lot jamiechi. I'll give this a try; go into the map editor and try and save my city.

 

[jamiechi]

These are the original maps without anything on them. So you will need to restart your cities from scratch after fixing the maps.