Electric power is one of the major cornerstones of modern civilization. This rings especially true in Prehistoric Kingdom, unless you plan on escaped carnivores being part of the tour experience! As a necessary function to get any park running, power is one of the most fundamental elements a good park manager needs to be prepared to handle before they even consider touching any of the animals in Prehistoric Kingdom.
Power management is currently disabled in the game: you can place the modules but nothing depends on them. It may become scrapped entirely according to lead developer Mau, but in that case the modules would likely stay as decoration.
Creating Power[]
Power is a resource generated by certain types of park infrastructure modules. Specifically, it’s produced by diesel generators, solar panels, small and large wind turbines and geothermal power plants. It can be provided directly or stored in backup batteries. All of these modules provide power to any sinks within a circular radius of them, allowing any amenities, structures or exhibits inside their range to consume it.
In Challenge Mode, the player starts with diesel generators and batteries; other modules will need researching. Wind and solar bring benefits such as increased reliability, output and radii, at the cost of intermittent generation and higher upkeep costs. The holy grail of power generation is the geothermal plant, which reliably outputs a constant, high power.
| Generator Type | Cost ($) | Upkeep ($/month) | Power Generated (initial) | Power Generated (after efficiency research) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel Generator | 250 | 4 | 15 | 15 |
| Solar Panel | 500 | 13 | 0-25, none at night | 0-35, none at night |
| Wind Turbine | 1,000 | 25 | 60-120, weather-dependent | 80-160, weather-dependent |
| Wind Turbine Large | 5,000 | 50 | 120-240, weather-dependent | 150-300, weather-dependent |
| Geothermal Power Plant | 18,750 | 125 | 300 | 400 |
Managing Power[]
Power modules that are in range of each other will link up; any power sink that is located within the range of a power module will be able to access the power of other generators within that first power module’s range. In other words, if you make sure that every generator is in range of other generators so that there are no breaks in the coverage, power will enter a common pool that any nearby amenity can pull from.
According to their type, generators will quickly or slowly accumulate damage over time. The player can manually repair them at any point, at a cost. When a generator is damaged, it can fail and require a reboot, potentially leaving infrastructure without power. It’s for these occasions that a backup battery can prove useful by providing temporary power. Although they have no failure rate, batteries take time to recharge after usage before they’re ready to go again. A single battery module holds up to fifteen units of energy.
As of Update 8, power modules will negatively impact park beauty, meaning it will be best to hide them from your guests’ sight, while still keeping them close enough to power your amenities.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Power received a major revamp in Update 7, which newly added all modules except for solar panels and small wind turbines, added failure and damage mechanics and added power-related research.
- For the sake of gameplay, power modules work quite a bit differently than their real-world counterparts. Most notably, diesel generators generate little power at low marginal costs while renewables have higher upkeep and power generation, whereas one would expect it to be the other way around. Also, solar panels aren't affected by shadows or the height of the sun, and wind turbines experience no wind occlusion.
- Unlike the majority of real-life wind turbines, Prehistoric Kingdom's turbines are of a vertical-axis type. Specifically, they are helical Darrieus turbines. These come with their own advantages and disadvantages, but most importantly for a video game they have a more aesthetically pleasing and futuristic design.
- The ambiguously named industrial power station was never added to Early Access and eventually got replaced by the geothermal power plant.