Anno 1800 Electricity: How to Build and Optimize Your Power Grid in the Old World

In Anno 1800, electricity is the key to boosting the efficiency of the city and reducing the general maintenance cost of many production buildings. It is also an essential need for the population growth of engineers. Generating electricity simply requires building oil refineries, railways, and oil harbours. Yet, how to connect production buildings to the power? What is the best layout to make the best out of the oil resource the island has? This post leads you through the ins and outs of the Old World power grid and helps you increase the efficiency of the city like never before!

How to Extract and Store Oil?

In Anno 1800, electricity in the Old World is generated by oil, and oil extraction is not available until players have engineers. After players upgrade artisans’ residences to engineers’, players can check the catalogue of new buildings, which shows as the bottom bar on the screen. Anno 1800 electricity production line will appear with an icon similar to: ⚡.

The basic production line requires:

1. Oil refineries for extracting the oil
2. Railway for transporting the oil
3. Oil Harbour for storing the oil

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To extract oil from the oil refinery, players need to construct the refinery next to the oil resource, and then build an oil well directly on top of the oil. The refinery must be adjacent but not directly on top of the oil resources. To scout out all the oil resources that players have on one island, players can click on the oil icon on the mini-map at the bottom left corner of the screen.

In the Old World of Anno 1800, the oil harbour can store the oil, but players can only build it at a shore. Therefore, after extracting the oil, players need to build a railway that connects the inland oil refineries to the oil harbour at the shore. Upon connecting the refineries and the oil harbour, the harbour will send out trains following this order:

1. Departing from the harbour to collect oil at the refineries
2. Sending them back to the harbour
3. Finally, dispatching them to the power station.

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How to Connect the Railway?

Railways in Anno 1800 are for connecting the oil refineries to the oil harbours, not for connecting production buildings to the power grid. In other words, the railway transports the oil on the islands. Thus, to maximize the efficiency of oil transportation and save the cost of constructing too many railway tracks, players need to find the shortest routes from the refineries to the harbours.

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The construction of a railway is a little bit different from that of roads in the game. Players cannot build the railway just “by” the refinery buildings or the harbours. There are small sections of tracks on the oil refineries and the oil harbours, indicating the connection points to the railway. Players need to connect the railway to the hinted areas on the refineries and the oil harbours.

Because the railway track can only allow one-way direction at a time, sometimes the trains block the tracks. The reason behind this is that there are too many trains going in different directions. In this case, players need to consider building parallel tracks to allow more trains to go through when they are heading in different directions. Parallel tracks are quite important to improve the efficiency of oil transportation, for if the power stations run out of oil, the electricity output will stop immediately.

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How to Connect Buildings to the Power Grid?

Electricity cannot upgrade all the buildings. Players can check if they can empower a building with electricity by checking the detailed information panel of the building.

To connect a building to the power grid, players simply need to build road connections between the power station and the building. The road connection forms the power grid.

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Clicking on the power station will highlight the road covered by electricity with a green color. By moving or constructing buildings along the roads with green-color highlights, players are connecting these buildings to the power grid. The power icon of the buildings’ information panel turns blue, and the buildings can produce products with 200% efficiency.

There is no calculation of the total power output and consumption of each power station. So, players can squeeze in as many buildings as they can near a power station. As long as the building is connected to the green-highlighted road, it can get as much power as it needs. The only condition is that the power station has oil to generate power.

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What Is the Best Layout to Maximize Efficiency?

The maximization of power efficiency involves the layout of the railway and the layout of the power grid. The layout of the railway, oil refineries, and oil harbours can optimize the oil transportation. The layout of the power grid allows players to fit in as many factories as possible with a small number of power stations.

The route of oil transportation is as such: Because of how the trains travel among the oil refineries, harbours, and the power stations, it would be best to place the oil harbour between refineries and power stations, to prevent trains occupying or blocking the same tracks. Players can also consider building parallel tracks between the refineries and oil harbours, as well as the power stations and oil harbours, because the railway is one-way at a time.

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As to the power grid, try to place the power station at the center among the buildings that need power. The power grid can only be extended to a certain distance. Therefore, within this range, players can try to construct denser roads to place more factories next to these roads that have electricity. Then, players can maximize the electricity efficiency generated by each power station. It also avoids too much maintenance or construction costs.

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FAQs

How to produce electricity in Anno 1800?

Electricity in the Old World of Anno 1800 is generated by oil. To produce electricity, players need to build oil refineries to extract the oil, railways to transport the oil, oil harbours to store the oil, and power stations to generate electricity.

How exactly does electricity work?

Electricity in the Old World of Anno 1800 is generated by oil resources. The oil transportation relies on railways, while the power grid runs with the road construction next to the power stations.

How much oil for one power plant in Anno 1800?

One power station in Anno 1800 usually takes 2-3 oil refineries to refill the oil and maintain a balance. However, the stability of the electricity generation also depends on how the railways are constructed. If the railways are very blocked by trains travelling in different directions, the oil produced by the refineries will not be able to reach the harbours and the power stations in time.

Conclusion: Anno 1800 Electricity in the Old World

In Anno 1800, electricity is the game changer that transitions players from the early game to the mid game. Electricity significantly increases the efficiency of the factories and makes the city neater and cleaner with less vulgarity and pollution.

How so? By connecting the factory to the power grid, players can use fewer factories to achieve the same output as before. Thus, many redundant factories can be torn down, replaced with more natural and cultural ornaments. It also frees up more space for players to properly plan out the city layout for the latter part of the game. In short, by mastering the electricity buildup in Anno 1800, players can improve the efficiency, increase the production output, and reduce the costs of the island maintenance.