Grid Manager

Grid Manager is a free renewable energy game. Students keep a town powered every hour of the day using solar farms, wind turbines, batteries, pumped hydro and, on later levels, gas plants. A chart under the map shows hour by hour where the town’s power comes from, what is charging the batteries, what is wasted, and where the blackouts are. The goal is to keep the lights on for as little money and CO₂ as possible.

How to play

Choose a machine and tap squares on the map to build it. Each square shows how much sun or wind it gets: hilltops are windier, valleys are shaded. Move along the chart to see any hour on the map, with the sun, the turbines, the battery levels and the houses’ lights. Then press Run the day to play it through. If there’s a blackout, the game explains why: not enough energy stored, or batteries that can’t deliver it fast enough.

Each level earns up to three stars: one for keeping the lights on (and under the CO₂ limit), two for staying within the budget, and three for matching the cheapest design we know.

The levels

#	Level	Years	Big idea
1	Sunny School	9	Supply must meet demand every hour
2	After Dark	9	Storage moves energy from day to night; MW vs MWh
3	Windy Hill	9–10	Mixing sources; where you build matters
4	Evening Rush	10	Battery power (MW) vs energy (MWh)
5	Grey Skies	10–11	Designing for the worst day
6	Backup Plan	11–12	Gas backup, CO₂ limits, cost vs emissions
7	Smart Timing	12	Moving flexible demand to sunny hours
8	Still Week	12–13	Long-duration storage for a still, grey spell

Tips for teachers

• Year 9: After Dark makes the link between power and energy concrete. Ask how many megawatt-hours the town uses at night before students build any batteries.
• Years 10–11: Evening Rush and Grey Skies show why a grid needs more than average output. Ask students to explain a blackout from the chart.
• Years 12–13: Backup Plan, Smart Timing and Still Week are real energy-policy trade-offs: cost against emissions, storage against demand-side response. They work well for discussion and extended writing.

Every level ends with a short “What you learned” summary you can use as a plenary.