Raser Technologies, Inc. (Raser) has announced the anticipated timeline for the remaining commissioning activities for its first geothermal power plant in Utah. The company also provided an update on its progress towards delivering clean renewable power to Anaheim. Having completed their commissioning tests for all 50 UTC Power generating units, the company is preparing to start delivery of power to Anaheim.
Raser anticipates that the local utility will complete installation of the final supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) equipment on the transmission lines that links Thermo to the local utility by the end of this week. This should allow Thermo to begin increasing power to the grid starting next week. The SCADA equipment prevents damage to the grid and allows the local utility to monitor, control and measure the flow of power from Thermo to the grid. Completion of the installation of the SCADA equipment by the utility will increase the cap on the amount of power that Thermo can send to the grid and allows it to complete the final commissioning processes.
Raser has been limited by the local utility’s capacity to monitor and control the power being produced and sold to it by Thermo over the last four weeks. Raser expects to begin ramping up, initially, to the 3 megawatt (MW) cap starting next week and believes that this power can begin to be transmitted to Anaheim within the next few weeks. To date, Raser has been interconnected and generating test power to the local utility. Beginning the week of January 25, 2009, the company expects the cap to be raised further and to be able to ramp delivery of power up to 5-8 MW in various stages with the final ramp up to full capacity expected in February, 2009.
“We have been very pleased with our progress towards completing the commissioning,” said Steven Brown, executive vice president of Raser. “Our output has been primarily constrained by the local utility’s capacity to this point. As we complete the last few finishing construction items, such as insulating the pipes and tying in the last wells, we will be able to see Thermo run at its peak power output within the next few weeks. We are behind a bit on testing of wells at Thermo, but believe they will all be online and tied into the plant by the end of the month. The finishing items of fencing, insulating and security systems for the plant should all be done by our next public tour date.”
The company also announced the next public tour date for Thermo as February 26, 2009 at the plant’s site in Beaver County, Utah. Today, Raser held its first public tour since the ribbon cutting ceremony in November, 2008 with dozens of people attending and observing the plant in running condition. The company expects to hold regular tours open to the public to meet the interest in the new geothermal technology and rapidly deployed power plant.