The Power Grid Resource Market: Supply, Refill, and Scarcity

The midgame lesson asked you to read the fuel market like a forecast. This lesson gives you the numbers behind the forecast. Fuel in Power Grid is not an endless shop. It is a small pool of wooden markers moving in a loop, and the loop runs at a different speed for each fuel.

What is in the box

The Recharged base game has 24 coal, 24 oil, 24 garbage, and 12 uranium markers. That is all the fuel there will ever be.

The market has eight price spaces from 1 to 8. Coal, oil, and garbage each hold three markers per space. Uranium holds one marker per space, on twelve spaces running from 1 to 8 and then 10, 12, 14, and 16.

At setup:

• Coal fills spaces 1 to 8: all 24 markers are on the market.
• Oil fills 3 to 8: 18 markers, cheapest at 3.
• Garbage fills 6 to 8: 9 markers, cheapest at 6.
• Uranium sits on 14 and 16: 2 markers.

So coal starts cheap and plentiful, garbage starts scarce and pricey, and uranium starts very expensive.

The loop

Every marker moves through the same loop:

1. Market. Bought by a player.
2. Plant. Stored until burned. Players can hold up to double each plant’s need.
3. Supply. Burned fuel goes to the general supply beside the board.
4. Market again, but only as fast as the refill card allows.

Two consequences matter.

Stored fuel is out of the loop. Fuel on plants is not in the supply, so it cannot come back to the market. When several players store double, the refill can come up short.

Burn faster than refill and prices climb. If the table burns more of a fuel each round than the refill card returns, the cheap spaces stay empty and the price creeps up round after round.

Refill rates

The refill card differs by player count and step. At five players, the count the World Boardgaming Championships prefers, Step 1 returns 5 coal, 4 oil, 3 garbage, and 2 uranium per round.

Now compare that to demand. Five players each running one coal plant that burns 2 coal want 10 coal a round. The market returns 5. The other 5 come out of the market’s stock, and the price climbs. Run the same sum for each fuel once the opening plants are bought, and you have a forecast.

How fast prices climb

Because coal, oil, and garbage come three to a space, each price step holds three markers. A player buying 6 coal from a full market pays 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, for 9 Elektro. The next player buying 6 pays 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, for 21. Same fuel, same round, more than twice the price.

Uranium moves faster. One marker per space means every purchase pushes the price straight up. Buying 2 uranium at the start costs 14 plus 16.

Fuel personalities

• Coal: cheap and common early. Many players start on it, so its price swings hardest in the midgame.
• Oil: a middle fuel that starts at 3. Hybrid plants burn coal or oil, which ties the two prices together.
• Garbage: starts expensive and thin. When nobody burns it, it piles up and gets cheap. When two players do, it runs out.
• Uranium: few markers, steep prices, but uranium plants burn only one marker each. A cheap uranium market is a quiet gift. On the Germany side, uranium stops refilling once plant 39 is bought.
• Eco plants: no fuel, no fuel fights, no stockpiling.

Stockpiling: when it pays

Storing double costs money now. It pays when:

• The refill for your fuel is smaller than the table’s burn. Next round will cost more.
• You buy before a rival who needs the same fuel. Buying ahead of them raises their price or leaves them short.
• Step 3 is near. The refill card’s Step 3 column changes the flow again, and the last rounds are when fuel matters most.

It does not pay when your fuel is plentiful and nobody else burns it. Then money in hand is worth more than wood on a card.

Buying a rival short

The midgame lesson noted that trailing players buy before the leader. Here is the sum to run before you try to starve someone:

1. How many markers of their fuel are on the market?
2. How many do they need to run their plants this round?
3. How many can you store, and what will they cost you?

If the market holds fewer than they need plus what you can store, you can leave a plant dark. If it holds many more, you are spending money to make them pay a little more. That is rarely worth it.

Choosing plants with the market in mind

When you look at a plant in the auction, check the market for its fuel: how much is there, how fast it comes back, and who else burns it. A slightly weaker plant on a quiet fuel often beats a stronger one in a fuel fight. The next lesson puts that into the auction.