My power is constantly pingponging betweeen 1500 and -800, why is it doing that. I keep building new powersources, nuclear reactors and windturbines but it wont stop.
Only solar panels i have are the ones build around artificial sun. I checked if it was a bunch of em breaking down, not that either. Yea theres always one or two constantly needing repairs but it doesnt cause that much of a power fluctuation.

Work schedules perhaps?

Heya,

1. for that much surplus build more batteries (preferable the Atomic ones).

2. yeah have a look at shifts (at night less work or none, to compensate for no solar panel power generattion)

3. try to switch to Wind Turbines, they constantly generate power over Solar Panels. Though they are more expensive with machine parts as maintenance requirement, over metal, for Solar Panels (trade-offs).

4. Later you can use fusion power, but you need to keep it staffed with 3 shifts, alternatively the Artificial Sun wonder for Solar Panels.

Cheers

As implied but not explicitly stated in the first reply of the thread, if your colonists are working only daytime shifts, demand will peak on the morning shift when everything including farms and ranches is working full. With no adjusted shifts, demand will drop modestly on the evening shift because the farm and ranch crews are off duty so those facilities are pulling less power. demand will fall drastically at night when no one is working, dining out, drinking out, gambling, etc.

Try balancing your work shifts. Some farms/ranches can work the afternoon shift. If you are only working single shifts at some facilities, make their work shift a lower demand shift, typically afternoon.

Working at night constantly quickly drives colonists nuts. Instead, build extra batteries/ataomic accumulators to soak up the nighttime produced surplus power. The storage systems will then have that power available on the grid for the daytime peak usage hours.

There are breackthroughs that make night work more palatable, and some of the standard mid-late techs make Martianborn less prone to lose Sanity and Morale. When you get those techs, re-examine your work schedules to see if you can spread the efforts more evenly onto the night shifts as well.

Even with favorable social techs / developments, avoid using both the combination of out-of-dome work, night shift, and heavy workload. That's like the trifecta of oppresive Mars work conditions, and even the best of colonists will start cracking under the stress.

Don't be afraid to use some night shifts for limited periods of surge at inside factories/facilities, however. Say, 5 sols on, 5 sols off, as long as you have good Sanity support in the dome otherwise.