In my experience:
Electric lights use a ridiculous amount of power, ugh, delete them all. ALL OF THEM. Use candles/oil lamps.
Level handiness and apply energy-efficient upgrades to EVERYTHING.
The off-the-grid fridge will slurp up power if you have solar panels or wind turbines unless you specifically click the "remove from utility usage" option. Until you get the upgrade or more solar panels/wind turbines, keep it full of ice.
Without energy-efficient upgrades: I can power intermittent fridge or laptop and get more options on my phone sometimes.
With energy-efficient upgrades: I can power the fridge, laptop, TV, and stove.
Also, after you've run off the grid for a while and have stored up power it's a lot better than when you're starting out. Maybe apply the geothermal and natural well lot traits until you build up a surplus.
(IOW: I think that's working as designed.)
I (a week ago) remodeled for a basement, and the pond disappeared from the lot.
I figured I'd just live without a pond, nasty mosquito-ridden smelly things anyway....
But after writing here I got nostalgic for a pond,
put one in and the Power-generation-income jumped to double what it was.
So that's a thing someone could try...stick in a pond, see if it changes anything.
Right this exact second it's generating 134,504 and all I did was add the pond.
It might change in an hour but for now it's real nice.
A day later (this is an edit) it dropped to 3000 a day.
I restarted, and restarted again, and it was back up to 130k.
So...(?)
This can't be the way it's supposed to be, per the last post.
