Steam engine available power shortage

[QuietCognition]

My factory contains 74 steam engines, which, when running at full capacity, satisfy my energy needs several times over. However, recently, I've entered a power shortage because my engines available power bars are all suddenly at around 220 Kw, instead of the normal 900. They are all fed by my many pumps and boilers, and now they are all operating at max output, but due to the low available power bars, that output isn't very high. Just a few hours ago my engines were producing upwards of 80 Mw, but now they won't even produce the 20 Mw I need to run my factory.
Please help.

[Tertius]

Please post your save or at least screenshots that include the popup you see if you hover with the mouse over a steam engine. Show the power plant as a whole, show the boilers, show the pumps, show the water supply, show the steam fill state.

If you use pumps, which definitely isn't necessary, I guess some pump isn't working properly. There is not enough power, so I guess it's some steam pump not pumping enough steam. The only pump you need is an offshore pump. Try your steam power plant without any other pump.

[jdrexler75]

Yes, unnecessary pumps can actually be detrimental because they require power to work. Without them the steam or water could flow but if power fails a little, they will stop flow, and then power can't fully recover.

The 2.0 fluid system makes most pumps unneeded, only put them in when the game explicitly warns you about maximum pipeline length. (Or to do flow control, of course.)

[QuietCognition]

Here's a picture of the popup, taken a few hours later. Power consumption was down to 10 Mw, and the problem seems to have resolved itself. But when I made the original post, the "Available Power" bars were near 220, causing the "Power Output" to be capped at around 220 too. Although it is gone for now, I've had this problem several times, and am afraid of it recurring.
Also, when I said pumps, I ment offshore pumps. Sorry for the confusion.
Attached is a image of my power info, Engine popup, and power plant layout when I made this post.
Thank you for your help

[Serenity]

It's one boiler for two engines. Best practice is to have the two engines behind every boiler. And not transport steam with branching pipes and such. You probably consumed so much power that your steam production was no longer enough to run as many engines as you need.

And water pumps were buffed, so one is enough for 200 boilers now. Previously it was 20

[jdrexler75]

tl;dr add more boilers

Well you could buffer the steam in a tank or ten to handle power spikes, but the steam engines on their own have too little buffer. So without large steam storage to cover all spikes, more than two steam engines per boiler will give you a false "max production" value that you can't reach in a steady state because you will run out of steam (literally and figuratively).

[Khagan]

tl;dr add more boilers

This. I think the way the 'maximum production' works is that each steam engine that has any trace of steam in it is counted as 900 kW, but any that are completely empty are ignored. So if you have spare capacity, it will show all of the engines; but if you are running flat out, it will only count those that are fully supplied by your boilers, plus maybe one or two more at the far end of the pipe. The figure of 19.8 MW you quoted earlier is consistent with your having only 10 or 11 boilers, rather than the 37 you need to power all the engines.