Dam not behaving?

[TehJumpingJawa]

Any ideas?

At time of construction the estimated production was 192MW.

Will it take a long time to begin producing because the head of water has to equalize?

 

[Illanair]

I'm not sure I understand this image...

Why is the river drying out? Isn't it supposed to flow INTO the Ocean, not the other way?

 

[TehJumpingJawa]

I'm not sure I understand this image...

Why is the river drying out? Isn't it supposed to flow INTO the Ocean, not the other way?

Map is Spring Woods; there are 2 large bodies of water with a river connecting them.

Deleted the dam, and placed it a little lower in the river's valley and it almost immediately began generating 80-96MW.
Looks like being greedy by fine tuning the dam placement runs a high risk of the resultant water level being too low for the dam to generate any power at all.

 

[Illanair]

The key thing is that the dam won't start turbines (and generate) power before it's generated a resevoir that is tall enough for the walls. So you may have better luck placing a slightly shorter one in the same place.

 

[gfurst]

Here is a snapshot of my little beautiful dam...
This babe generates 256 MW with just this little size, this is the river from the Lagoon map.
The deal is, it generates power through flow, not size...
See the treatments stations too, they actually help by throwing additional flow to the river.

The best way I see to get a Dam, is to find to more level place between two sides of a river (so there isn't a big sloop in either side), this will most likely allow for better containment without water spilling out.

 

[Thedudeman3]

It is all about where you place the dam and what way you place it. Looking at your picture, that dam should produce 50-60MW, but you placed it with the curve of it going in to the ocean. So all you did was block up the water source for the river, and your dam isn't doing anything.

 

[Walltar]

Dams are fun ... But sometimes it is really hard to get them working. Water just go back for no reason and your river just dries... but then you can build part of your city there. Wish there was some heigth setting, so you can just start even half full dam.

My dam:

 

[rand4747]

you can have different heights for the dam, its height is where you started dragging it, so in a canyon if you start halfway down the canyon wall it will start there. Main thing when placing is in a high flow area but not close to the source, if the dam height is above the source the source stops flowing.

 

[Illanair]

What Rand said - If the resevoir can't fill up to the height of your dam, you're just going to have to place a shorter one (heightwise) instead.

I wouldn't mind some leeway as far as dam resevoirs go - Not to mention the option to just use it as a wall to divert and dry up rivers. (Consistently that is)

 

[neoiq5719]

I think there´s something wrong with the dams. I placed it in that map half way down the river and at first it gave me about 150 and could see it fluctuating but didnt care cos I had a lot of power BUT then something happened and went down to 0. Why? no idea. Had to delete it

 

[karlack26]

To get my dam working. I Selected the dam then toggle building off then back on. It is was producing zero power. I thought some thing was up after letting it
sit for some time.

 

[Illanair]

I think there´s something wrong with the dams. I placed it in that map half way down the river and at first it gave me about 150 and could see it fluctuating but didnt care cos I had a lot of power BUT then something happened and went down to 0. Why? no idea. Had to delete it

The water level became too low for it to pump into the turbines - Most common issues with misplaced hydro dams. Never put water pumps upstream of dams - Put them downstream or on a separate water outlet entirely. Additionally you can put sewage outlets upstream and they will pump water into the resevoir behind the dam, helping it fill up.

 

[Alex24]

had a similar situation on the same map

 

[gfurst]

The water level became too low for it to pump into the turbines - Most common issues with misplaced hydro dams. Never put water pumps upstream of dams - Put them downstream or on a separate water outlet entirely. Additionally you can put sewage outlets upstream and they will pump water into the resevoir behind the dam, helping it fill up.

I did this unconsciously and noticed it later, for out of no reason my dam went from 160 expected to 256. Probably why the guy above is complaining his dam is not producing anything anymore.
Damn this game is awesome!!!