photo of pond The Northwest Power System Curriculum

The Power Game

The Power Game is the last chapter in the Northwest Power System Curriculum. It gives students a chance to discuss and debate power generation scenarios using the knowledge they have acquired in the previous lessons. The students form teams which operate power companies. The teams are faced with decisions reflecting the real world: economics, environment, government, consumers, weather and technology. Each team discusses its options and tries to reach a consensus on what strategy to proceed with as it supplies electrical energy. The teacher can decide how and to what degree success should be measured; the real goal is to precipitate a lively discussion of the myriad conflicts and choices made in the power industry. There are 2 versions of the game: The Power Game and the Power Board Game.

The Power Game Instructions - This set of instructions has a practice game and 2 simpler versions of the game which can be used to build skills before playing the full simulation of the game.

The Power Game has these basic rules:

  1. The class breaks into teams of 3 or more students.
  2. Each team starts with 4 utilities: 1 hydro, 2 coal and 1 nuclear generator
  3. Remaining cards are stacked by resource type (coal, solar, nuclear, etc)
  4. The teacher has a scenarios chart ("Load Growth Scenarios") which dictates the power needs for each year. As the teacher announces the power needs, each utility group buys the resources it needs to produce or conserve power and places its utility tokens on the "System Map." Current event cards give information that the utilities must include in their strategy. The "Utility Company Cost Sheet" is used to keep track of how much each utility spends.
  5. At the end of the game the teams can compare results: who spent the least, who had the best environmental record, etc. There need not be a clear winner.
  6. This game is ideal for a class that is well prepared to explore all of the issues covered in the lessons leading up to the game.

Game pieces:

Teachers' Materials:

You will need to prepare the Power Resource Cards. First print out both sides of the card and match them up so you can make double sided copies. You will need a copy of each card for each team playing the game. Make enlarged copies of the card on stiff cardstock which you can cut into individual resource cards. Use felt-tipped pens to mark cards as follows: Hydro is blue; Solar, Geo and Energy are red; Wind is yellow and all other cards remain white. Cards should be in stacks in the following ratio: red = 1-3 cards, yellow = 5 cards, white = 15-20 cards. You may need to increase the number of cards for a lage class size.

The Power Board Game Instructions

This is similar to The Power Game except a game board is used in place of the teacher’s scenarios chart. Teams roll a dice to determine what resources or events they must decide on. The goal is to purchase 3000 megawatts of power for the least cost. Teachers can modify the game by introducing activity cards at each round of play. In this game chance plays a larger role, but there is a distinct goal and it will take less time to play.

Game pieces:

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