Power Grid: Recharged
Auction power plants, compete for fuel in a changing resource market and expand an electrical network while balancing efficiency, cash and turn order.
Bid for power plants, buy fuel from a market whose prices rise with demand, and expand your electrical network into cities.
Turn order changes based on network size, creating a balancing mechanism that rewards timing rather than simply being ahead every round.
Why We Love It
Power Grid links auctions, fuel prices and network expansion into one economy. Buying a strong plant can hurt if it empties your cash before the resource and city-building phases.
About Power Grid: Recharged
Bid for power plants, buy fuel from a market whose prices rise with demand, and expand your electrical network into cities.
Turn order changes based on network size, creating a balancing mechanism that rewards timing rather than simply being ahead every round.
Game at a Glance
Auction Plants
Compete for generators with different capacities and fuel needs.
Buy Fuel
Resource prices shift as players consume and restock the market.
Expand the Grid
Pay connection costs to enter more cities.
Power Efficiently
Balance capacity, cash and city count to finish with the strongest network.
What is Power Grid: Recharged?
Power Grid: Recharged is Rio Grande Games’ updated edition of Friedemann Friese’s classic economic network game. Players acquire power plants, buy the fuel those plants require and connect cities on a shared map.
Rio Grande identifies Recharged as the replacement for the out-of-print first edition and lists support for 2–6 players.
How the game works
Each round combines a power-plant auction, resource purchasing, network expansion and bureaucracy/income. New plants become available over time, creating a shifting market of efficiency and capacity.
Fuel prices respond to demand because resources are removed from a shared market and replenished at different rates. Turn order affects auctions, resource access and city-building costs.
The decisions that define it
Cash has competing jobs: winning a strong plant, securing fuel and expanding the network. Overspending in one phase can leave you unable to exploit an advantage in another.
Turn order creates deliberate tension because being ahead can make you act later in key markets, giving trailing players better access to resources and cities.
Who is it for?
Choose Power Grid if you want auctions, shared resource pricing and network expansion in a highly interactive economic game.
Choose Concordia for less auction pressure or Brass: Birmingham for a heavier shared-industry economy.
Learn Power Grid: Recharged in depth
Publisher sources & scope
Checked September 16, 2026. This hub covers Power Grid: Recharged rather than the out-of-print first edition.