Power

In purely scientific terms, Power refers to the amount of work that can be done per unit time, be it mechanical or electrical. However, in colloquial terms, power refers to electrical energy used to run technological devices. Power is generally supplied in the field by Power plants or Advanced power plants, though other armies were note to rely on various reactors.

In military bases, sufficient power generation is a necessity. Most essential structures are designed with enough foresight to anticipate a blackout whilst in the field, and as such are assembled with backup generators that allow them to continue operation without external power. However, these generators are not meant to be designed relied upon and are limited in capacity, so construction yards, war factories, barracks, and other such structures operate far more slowly when without power.

Also, many advanced structures require far greater amounts of power to operate, and will completely cease functioning in a blackout. Upper-tier base defense systems such as the USSR's Tesla Coil or Brotherhood of Nod's Obelisk of Light require enormous amounts of power to remain operational, and will cease to offer protection if they are not powered.

Power is also needed for targeting and logistical data. Without power for their command systems, command centers' radar systems are incapable of tracking the battlefield and cannot provide radar. In addition, certain devices or processes, such as the Allied Chronosphere, or uplinks to the Global Defense Initiative's Ion cannon, will freeze without power.

Additionally, during some wars power outages can undermine a base's integrity; and buildings will undergo damage as long as power output is not equal or surpassing the demand. However, in most modern conflicts additional systems have been installed to prevent this damage.

As power is a vital necessity for many important military functions, commanders can significantly weaken their opponents by attacking their power plants. Plants are generally very weakly armoured, as their design focus was on flexible deployment and power output, so it is advisable to build more plants than necessary to lessen the chances a surprise strike that can blind and paralyze a base.

In all Command and Conquer games, the exact values of the power grid's power and drain can be displayed by hovering the cursor over the power bar.

Related Abilities

During the interwar period between the Firestorm Crisis and the Third Tiberium War, the Brotherhood of Nod's elite Black Hand went into exile under Brother Marcion. It was during this time that their scientists and researchers produced several interesting results - among them being the Power Signature Scan ability, which allowed their commanders to identify and map out the location of enemy generators, regardless of their position.

Spies deployed by the Allied forces were capable of wreaking havoc upon power grids if they managed to break into them. They were capable of shutting down a base's power for an entire minute, potentially providing the commander an opening to attack whilst the enemy is blind. The Global Liberation Army's specially trained Saboteurs were capable of similar feats.

Certain units - namely, the Third World War Allied Robot Tank and the GLA Conflict's US Laser Crusader - required massive amounts of power to operate their advanced drives or weapons, and as such were connecting to the base's power grid to maintain functionality. This had the additional consequence of their being inoperable if the base's power grid was compromised.

Additionally, the namesake Global Liberation Army of the GLA Conflict had no access to power generating facilities, since all their structures are designed to operate without them. However, power does improve their construction/repair/production speeds.

Certain power plants in Tiberian Sun and Generals could be upgraded to produce even more power; all power plants deployed during the events of Tiberium Wars were capable of this. Alternatively, some belligerents in the events of Red Alert 1, Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, and Red Alert 3 gained access to additional stronger power plants to assist their standard ones, albeit higher up the tech tree.

Additionally, in Tiberium Wars, commanders can choose to depower certain structures if they so wish. While manually depowering a structure makes it completely unable to serve its purpose as opposed to doing so in an impaired way, it completely subtracts that structure's drain from the power grid. This can be useful for micromanaging existing power stores until additional power plants can be constructed, as displayed by a GDI commander at Croatia.

Power Scaling

In Red Alert 2 and Command and Conquer games released prior to it, power plants produced power in the hundreds. For instance, the Allied Power Plant of the Third World War (first iteration) produced 200 units of power. However, the drain of structures was also rather high - for instance, the Grand Cannon deployed specially by the Allied-aligned France costed 100 units of power. The plants' structure was not of exceptional integrity, either, and severe damage could affect its performance.

In Generals and the games released after it, power values were scaled down drastically. For instance, the Cold Fusion Reactor of the United States produced only 5 units of power (10 if upgraded), but the Patriot Missile Battery only required 3 to operate. They also continued to output the same amount of power as long as the reactor remained operational, regardless of its current state.

See also

• EMP, weapon type than can produce an effect similar to a power outage