The plant generated 25MW following the completion of repair work on production wells in the fourth quarter of 2009 and was expected to recover to approximately 30MW. However, the actual steam supply gradually declined and in January 2010 the plant reached a generation level of 17MW, the company said.
The company is in the process of implementing a quick repair through a chemical cleaning of the wells. If this is not successful, it will have to perform a mechanical cleaning, the company said.
The company also plans to start drilling a new production well in the next few days. The drilling work of the new well and its connection to the power plant is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2010. This plan is intended to increase the available geothermal fluid and enable the power plant to generate at full capacity. The estimated cost to execute this plan is approximately $11m.
Ormat Technologies is a vertically-integrated company primarily engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business. The company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants.
