Faulkner 1 geothermal plant was increased from 13 megawatts to 26 MW with permanent cables installed to Turbine Generator Units One and Three
Nevada Geothermal Power announced that it has increased Faulkner 1 geothermal plant power production from 13 megawatts to 26 MW by installing permanent cables to Turbine Generator Units One and Three.
NGP announced in January, that a "ground fault" problem in the electrical control system had caused the 49.5-MW plant to shut down automatically. The EPC contractor determined after an initial inspection that the cause for the automatic shut down was a failure in the buried power cable system.
The failure in the power system was caused by improper configuration of the power cables leading outward from the control building. This caused excessive heat to build up and led to cable failure in an isolated portion of the power cable runs.
The EPC contract stipulates a warranty that covers all cable repairs on the plant. NGP expects Unit Two to be at full capacity before March 10, 2010.
Production levels at the Faulkner 1 plant will be increased is between 36-40 MW once it is fully operational. Production increase will be ensured by the newly drilled and tested, deep injection wells, 55-15 and 58-11.
NGP is currently testing Well 91-15, drilled to 8359 feet. In about two and a half months all production pipeline and electrical service connections will be completed.
John Hancock and the U.S. Department of Energy are continuing with their due diligence process to support a 20-year term senior debt financing and a related DOE Loan Guarantee. A necessary component of the due diligence review, results from the three new completed wells will be incorporated into a resource update report by GeothermEx.
Before the end of March, 2010, the company expects to contract permanent financing.
