I'm blowing fuses ...

[lbores]

... or something like because I'm getting msgs to the effect that a 'power surge has destroyed all the mines at X Base. Perhaps you should consider installing more Energy Banks ...'

Obviously I'm terraforming more tiles than I need.

Unlike CivII, I guess t-forming most tiles within a base radius is not a good idea. T-forming is more of an artform than I realized.

So ... given a city of size 4 with 2 rocky tiles, 2 'rolling moist/rainy', 2 specials, and the rest assorted - how many of each of the aforenamed tiles should get t-formed with mines, farms, what-ever, and the rest forests or bupkis?

Are roads in each tile worthwhile or just under mine/energy sources and between bases?

What exactly do 'Energy Banks' do? Suck up excess mins/nuts/energy and convert to credits?

Duh!! :

[Skanderbeg]

Ibores
You are mixing up two different things: random events and terraforming

Random events are things that, as their name says, happen randomly, but some of them can be prevented by certain facilities or SP's(energy banks, network nodes biolabs, human genome project). There are as well good as bad random events. If You don't like them, You can switch them random event option off when starting a new game.
The number of terraformed tiles inside a base radius does NOT influence the frequency of random events, it influences only the ecodamage, and ecodamage can be controlled. So don't be afraid to terraform all Your territory!

An Energy Bank increases the energy income of the base for 50%, like the market place in Civ. An additional effect is that the number of energy banks in relation to the number of bases You have influences the frequency and effect (good/bad) of certain random events. There more You have, the better. It's the same for network nodes, childrens creches and biolabs.

"Steelborn, Starborn"