How to Teach Power Grid

Power Grid has a reputation as a heavy game, and a slow teach makes it feel heavier. Hosts read every step of bureaucracy and every Step 3 edge case before anyone has bid on a plant. By the time the auction starts, the table has forgotten why it wants plants at all.

The fix is to teach the loop, run one round together, and handle the bookkeeping yourself. Here is a script in the order you would say it. Print the Power Grid teach sheet and put it where everyone can see it.

Before anyone sits down

Set up first. Use the Germany side, which the rulebook suggests for a first game. Choose the regions for your player count, stock the resource market, and lay out the eight starting plants. Hand each player 22 houses, 50 Elektro, and a payout card.

Then decide one thing: you will be the banker and the market keeper. You will refill fuel, update the plant market, and move the discount token. New players should spend their attention on their own company, not on the upkeep.

Minute 1: the goal

Say: “We each run a power company. We buy power plants, buy fuel for them, and connect cities. Each round, the cities we power pay us. When the game ends, whoever powers the most cities wins.”

Then the loop, slowly: “Plants make power. Fuel runs the plants. Cities pay you. Money buys more plants, fuel, and cities.” Point at each piece as you say it.

Minutes 2 to 3: the five phases

Point at the teach sheet. “Every round is five phases in the same order. Order, auction, fuel, build, get paid.”

Then the most important sentence of the teach: “Whoever has the most cities goes first in the auction, but last when buying fuel and building. Being ahead costs you.”

Ask: “Questions on the order?”

Minutes 3 to 5: the auction

Hold up a plant card. “The number is the minimum bid. This icon is the fuel it burns and how much. This house number is how many cities it powers.”

Then: “On your turn, pick one of these four plants and bid. We go around, raise or pass. Pass and you are out of that auction. Everyone gets at most one plant a round, and this round everyone must buy one.”

Point at the discount token. “The smallest plant is on sale: you can open it at 1 Elektro.”

Minutes 5 to 6: fuel

Point at the resource market. “Prices are printed on the board. As markers sell, the price climbs. Last place buys first, so they pay the least.”

Add the one storage rule: “Each plant holds up to twice the fuel it burns. You cannot buy more than you can store.”

Minutes 6 to 8: building

Point at a city. “Your first city costs 10. After that, you pay the connection costs along the cheapest route from your network, plus 10 for the city.”

Then: “Right now, each city fits one company. Later in the game, cities open up to two and then three, and those spaces cost more.” Do not explain the step triggers yet.

Minute 9: getting paid

Point at the payout card. “Burn fuel, power cities, collect this much. You can’t power more cities than you own, and extra power is wasted. If you power nothing, you still get 10.”

Minute 10: the end, then play

“The game ends when someone reaches 17 cities.” Use the number for your player count from the sheet. “But the winner is whoever powers the most cities that final round. If you own 17 cities and can power 15, you powered 15.”

Then start. Run round 1 slowly, phase by phase, and narrate what you do as banker.

What to teach when it happens

• Step 2. When someone reaches the trigger, announce it in bureaucracy: cities now take a second company at 15.
• Step 3. When the card comes out, explain that the plant market shrinks to six and everything is for sale.
• The fourth plant. The first time someone wants one, explain scrapping.
• The unsold discount plant. When nobody buys it, show it leaving the market at the end of the auction.
• Board specials. On the Germany side, uranium stops refilling once plant 39 is bought. Mention it when 39 appears.

What to leave out

• The refill numbers. You handle them. Nobody else needs the card in game one.
• Strategy. Let people find their own first plant and first city.
• Two-player rules and variants. Save them for later games.

Coaching during the first game

Help with arithmetic, not decisions. Adding up a route or a fuel bill out loud for a new player is kind. Telling them where to build is playing for them.

Watch for the classic first-game moment: a player who builds cities they cannot power. A gentle question works: “How many cities can your plants run next round?”

For a method that works with any game, see our guide on how to teach a board game.