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⚡ Power Grid Planner & Guide

Last updated: June 2026

The Power Grid Planner helps you design stable power systems across factory games. Calculate total MW draw, fuel consumption rates, and generator counts. This page includes the interactive calculator and comprehensive reference tables for every power source type.

How to Use the Planner

The interactive tool below simplifies power plant design:

  1. Select a Game — Choose Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program (Factorio uses a different boiler→steam engine model coming in a separate tool).
  2. Pick a Power Source — Options update based on the game: Coal, Fuel, Nuclear, Geothermal, or Solar.
  3. Set Your Target Power Draw — Enter the total MW your factory needs (1 to 100,000 MW).
  4. Click "Calculate" — The results show:
  5. Number of generators needed
  6. Fuel consumption rate (coal/min, fuel/m³, or uranium/min)
  7. Water requirements (for steam-based power)
  8. Support buildings (water extractors, miners, refineries)
  9. Total footprint estimate

Pro Tip: Always build 20–30% over your current demand. Factory expansion happens faster than you expect, and a brownout cascade is hard to recover from.

⚙️ Generator Comparison by Game

Satisfactory Power Sources

Generator Type Output per Unit Fuel Type Fuel Rate Water Needed Unlock Tier
Coal Generator 75 MW Coal 15 Coal/min 45 m³/min Tier 3
Fuel Generator 150 MW Fuel (refined) 12 m³/min — Tier 5
Turbo Fuel Generator 150 MW Turbo Fuel 4.5 m³/min — Tier 6 (alt recipe)
Nuclear Power Plant 2500 MW Uranium Fuel Rods 0.2 Rods/min 240 m³/min Tier 8
Geothermal Generator Variable (100–630 MW) Heat (geyser) — — Tier 6

Coal Power Plant Design

Target MW Coal Generators Water Extractors Coal Miners (Normal) Coal / min
300 MW 4 3 1 Mk.1 (60 coal) 60
600 MW 8 6 1 Mk.2 (120 coal) 120
900 MW 12 9 2 Mk.1 or 1 Mk.3 180
1500 MW 20 15 2 Mk.2 (240 coal) 300
3000 MW 40 30 4 Mk.2 or 2 Mk.3 600

Coal Plant Pipe Layout: The classic ratio is 8 Coal Generators : 3 Water Extractors. Each water extractor produces 120 m³/min, and each generator consumes 45 m³/min. 3 × 120 = 360 m³/min feeds exactly 8 generators (8 × 45 = 360). Use Mk.1 pipes (300 m³/min limit) with two separate water lines for groups of 4 generators.

Fuel Generator Plant Design

Target MW Fuel Generators Fuel Refineries Crude Oil Nodes Fuel / min
600 MW 4 6 (heavy→fuel) 1 Normal (120 crude) 48 m³/min
1500 MW 10 15 1 Pure (240 crude) 120 m³/min
3000 MW 20 30 2 Pure or 1 Impure 240 m³/min
6000 MW 40 60 4 Pure or 2 Impure 480 m³/min

Fuel Processing Chain: Crude Oil → Refinery → Heavy Oil Residue (byproduct) + Fuel + Polymer Resin. Each refinery processing 60 crude/min produces 40 fuel/min + 30 HOR/min. The HOR can be recycled into more fuel using the Residual Fuel alt recipe (4 HOR → 2 Fuel).

Nuclear Power Plant Design

Target MW Plants Water Extractors Fuel Rods/min Waste/min
2500 MW 1 5 (600 m³/min) 0.2 10
5000 MW 2 10 0.4 20
10,000 MW 4 20 0.8 40
25,000 MW 10 50 2.0 100

Nuclear Warning: Each plant produces 50 waste/min that must be stored or reprocessed. A single plant running for 10 hours = 500 waste canisters. Plan storage accordingly.

Geothermal Generator Output

Geyser Purity Generator Output Number on Map
Pure 630 MW 2
High 310 MW 8
Normal 150 MW 14
Low 100 MW 10
Total ~5,780 MW 34 geysers

Dyson Sphere Program Power Sources

Generator Type Output Fuel Type Consumption Notes
Wind Turbine 0.3 MW Wind — Wind % varies by planet (20%–100%)
Thermal Power Plant 2.16 MW Coal/Graphite/etc. 10 Coal/min or 7 Graphite/min Most common early power
Solar Panel 0.36 MW Solar — 100% on inner planets, 0% on dark side
Mini Fusion Power Plant 9.0 MW Deuterium Fuel Rods 0.3 Rods/min Mid-game stable power
Artificial Sun 25.0 MW Antimatter Fuel Rods 0.15 Rods/min Endgame power plant
Dyson Sphere Reception Variable (100+ MW) Ray receivers — Depends on sphere output
Energy Exchanger Variable Accumulators — Charge/discharge accumulators

Thermal Power Plant Fuel Comparison

Fuel Type Energy per Item (MJ) Burn Time Power Plant Output Items/min per Plant
Coal 8 MJ 3.7s 2.16 MW 16.2/min
Graphite 16 MJ 7.4s 2.16 MW 8.1/min
Crude Oil 4 MJ 1.85s 2.16 MW 32.4/min
Refined Oil 8 MJ 3.7s 2.16 MW 16.2/min
Hydrogen 8 MJ 3.7s 2.16 MW 16.2/min
Deuteron Fuel Rod 600 MJ 277s 2.16 MW 0.22/min
Antimatter Fuel Rod 7500 MJ 3472s 2.16 MW 0.017/min (1 per ~58 min)
Nuclear Fuel Rod 6000 MJ 2777s 2.16 MW 0.022/min

Early Game Power Strategy (DSP): - Start with 3–4 Wind Turbines (0.3 MW each, 1.2 MW total) - Add 4 Thermal Power Plants burning coal (8.64 MW total) before your first major factory - Transition to Mini Fusion (9 MW per plant) once you reach purple science - Endgame: build Artificial Suns (25 MW each) and a Dyson Sphere

Factorio Power Sources

Although the interactive calculator does not yet support Factorio (its boiler→steam engine model requires a separate calculation approach), here is the reference data for planning:

Power Source Output per Unit Fuel Optimal Ratio
Boiler + Steam Engine 1.8 MW (2 engines per boiler) Any burnable fuel 1 Offshore Pump : 20 Boilers : 40 Steam Engines
Nuclear Reactor 40 MW (base, +300% adjacency) Uranium Fuel Cells 1 Reactor : 4 Heat Exchangers : 7 Steam Turbines
Solar Panel 60 kW Sunlight 0.84 Solar : 1 Accumulator (day/night)

Steam Power Layout (Classic 1:20:40)

Target MW Offshore Pumps Boilers Steam Engines Fuel (Coal/min)
18 MW 1 20 40 180 Coal/min
36 MW 2 40 80 360 Coal/min
72 MW 4 80 160 720 Coal/min
180 MW 10 200 400 1800 Coal/min

Rule of Thumb: Each boiler consumes 3.6 Coal/min. One yellow belt of coal (480/min) feeds ~133 boilers = ~120 MW.

Nuclear Reactor Adjacency Bonus

Reactor Configuration Total Heat Output Reactors Heat per Reactor
Single 40 MW 1 40 MW
2×1 (side by side) 120 MW 2 60 MW
2×2 (square) 480 MW 4 120 MW
2×3 800 MW 6 133 MW

Nuclear Heat Exchange Ratio: Each Heat Exchanger needs 10 MW of heat. A 2×2 reactor (480 MW) needs exactly 48 Heat Exchangers, which produce 48 × 103.09 = ~4,950 steam/s. This needs 85 Steam Turbines (each consumes 60 steam/s).

Solar Panel & Accumulator Ratio

Target MW Solar Panels Accumulators Space Required
10 MW 167 139 ~400 tiles
50 MW 834 695 ~2,000 tiles
100 MW 1,667 1,389 ~4,000 tiles
1 GW 16,667 13,889 ~40,000 tiles (10 chunks)

⚡ Power Consumption Reference Tables

Satisfactory Machine Consumption (MW)

Machine Power Clock Speed Adjustment
Constructor 4 MW P = 4 × (S/100)^1.3219
Assembler 15 MW P = 15 × (S/100)^1.3219
Manufacturer 75 MW P = 75 × (S/100)^1.3219
Refinery 30 MW P = 30 × (S/100)^1.3219
Blender 75 MW P = 75 × (S/100)^1.3219
Particle Accelerator 500–1500 MW Mode dependant
Miner Mk.1 5 MW Fixed per node
Miner Mk.2 12 MW Fixed per node
Miner Mk.3 30 MW Fixed per node
Oil Extractor 10–40 MW Purity dependant
Water Extractor 20 MW Fixed

Satisfactory Average Factory Consumption By Phase

Phase Typical MW Draw Power Source Needed
Tier 1–2 (Hub upgrades) 20–50 MW Biomass (temporary)
Tier 3–4 (Coal power) 50–200 MW Coal generators
Tier 5–6 (Fuel power) 200–1000 MW Fuel generators
Tier 7–8 (Nuclear) 1000–5000 MW Nuclear plant(s)
Endgame mega-base 10,000–50,000+ MW Nuclear + Geothermal

DSP Planet Power Guide

Planet Type Recommended Power Best Source
Starting planet (Grass) 10–30 MW Coal thermal → Mini fusion
Desert planet 30–100 MW Solar (high wind/solar%)
Lava planet 50–100 MW Geothermal / Solar
Ice planet 20–50 MW Wind turbines + thermal
Ocean planet 10–30 MW Wind turbines
Sulfuric planet 30–80 MW Thermal (coal from imports)

DSP Machine Consumption (per unit)

Machine Power Draw
Mining Machine 0.5 MW
Smelter 0.3 MW
Assembler Mk.I 0.3 MW
Assembler Mk.II 0.5 MW
Assembler Mk.III 1.0 MW
Oil Refinery 1.0 MW
Chemical Plant 0.8 MW
Matrix Lab 1.5 MW
Ray Receiver 3.0–15.0 MW
Energy Exchanger 4.0 MW
Orbital Collector 5.0 MW
Vertical Launching Silo 6.0 MW

Power Grid Design Tips

  1. Build in expandable blocks. A modular power plant design (e.g., 4 coal generators + 3 water extractors + 1 miner in Satisfactory) lets you copy-paste the same blueprint as your factory grows.
  2. Over-provision by 30%. If your factory draws 200 MW, build 260 MW of generation. Power spikes from Particle Accelerators (Satisfactory) or lab rushes (DSP/ Factorio) can cause instantaneous demand surges.
  3. Battery banks save factories. In DSP, a bank of 100+ Accumulators (or an Energy Exchanger setup) smooths out demand. In Satisfactory, Power Storage buildings (100 MWh each) give you 30+ seconds to fix a brownout.
  4. Fuel logistics matter more than generators. A full coal belt feeding 8 generators is useless if the miners run out of power (cascade failure). Solved in Satisfactory with a priority power switch for miners. In DSP, use separate power grids for miners and factories.
  5. Use priority switches. If you have multiple power plants, use circuit conditions (Factorio's switch, Satisfactory's priority system) to ensure fuel production stays online even when the main grid is overloaded.



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