Whyville needs plenty of electrical power to keep everything running, from keeping Dr. Leila's pool clean to manufacturing face parts at Akbar's Face Factory. When more citizens are here enjoying Whyville, power consumption increases, and when fewer citizens are present, less power is needed. Typically, Whyville requires the most power (a.k.a. peak power usage) after school ends for the day and before our citizens turn off their computers and head off to bed.
In order to keep our town running smoothly, the power plants in Whyville need to generate enough power to satisfy peak power usage needs. If the power plants generate too little power, citizens will face brown-outs. However, if they generate too much power, Whyville will waste precious natural resources.
Every week, City Hall sits down with her crackerjack team to make the
tough decision of how many of each type of power plants to turn on next week in order to satisfy peak power needs without being wasteful. But, City Hall is getting tired of making all the decisions herself. She has turned control of power generation over to Whyvillians. Your job is to help City Hall decide 1) how much total power Whyville will need, and 2) what types of power to generate.
| Coal |
Hydroelectric |
Nuclear |
Natural Gas |
Solar |
Wind |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
To help you decide, City Hall will present 4 choices every week for citizens to choose from. How do you decide on your choice? Well, you can take a wild guess, or you can make an informed decision using City Hall's Power Planner Worksheets.
These worksheets help you:
- Understand how much energy each type of power plant produces.
- Use data from previous weeks to predict Whyville's peak power needs for
next week.
- Consider other factors such as cost, land use, and emissions.
Do Practice Runs of the worksheets.
Start or continue your Power Planner Worksheets.
After you have decided what choice of power plants to vote for, vote for your favorite plan here.
See your Power Planner History.
