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Let's assume that I've got 10 cities connected in my network. I want to supply electricity to 6 of them and I've two power plants, each of them capable of supplying up to 5 cities. I've bought enough resources to use both power plants. Can I decide to use them to supply only 6 cities with electricity?
In this case, that would mean one plant would be using only 1/5 of its potential when it's perfectly possible to supply more cities with it - all 5 in this case. Is this allowed?
Sure - see page 5 of the rulebook, in the "Earning Cash" paragraph of the Phase 5: Bureaucracy section:
Earning cash: Starting with the first player, every player indicates how many cities in his network he wishes (and is able) to supply with electricity. He earns cash based on the number of cities he powers as shown on the payment table. A player who does not supply any city gets 10 Elektro (the guaranteed minimum). The players remove the required resources from the power plants that produced electricity this round and place the used resources in the resource supply next to the board. A player may choose (or only be able) to supply fewer cities than he has in his network. The player is paid only for the supplied cities. If a player produces more electricity than he has cities in his network, the surplus is wasted. Every player can choose how many and which of his power plants he uses, e.g. he does not have to supply all of his cities.
So you can very much power 6 cities with enough electricity for 10. You just won't be able to store the extra electricity produced for future use (or save yourself any of the resources that it cost you to produce so much electricity).
See also the line "a player may choose to supply fewer cities than he has in his network. The player is paid only for the supplied cities." It seems pretty clear to me that you can undersupply your cities if you want, strange though such a course of action might seem!
producing more electricity than I have cities in my network - I'm producing exactly the same amount. However, I voluntarily want to waste some of it, even though there is no surplus generated.
– beam022
Nov 19 '12 at 13:30
While the answer is certainly yes, it is important to note that player order is determined by the number of cities in the player's network, not the number that were powered. This misconception is the best reason I can imagine a player would want to do this.
It is also possible to fuel plants that cannot supply any city. Although still rare, you might want to do this if you were able to go before a particular opponent in the next round and cause a scarcity of a critical resource.
