The Life and Times of SMUDGEO: A Historical Perspective
- Key words
- Renewable energy; Geothermal; The Geysers
- Location
- The Geysers, California
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 2010
- Session
- Geothermal history
- Language
- English
Abstract
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is a publicly owned utility (POU) serving about 1.4 million people in California’s Sacramento County and parts of Placer County. SMUD developed its first geothermal power plant, SMUDGEO in 1983. The project was located in The Geysers area of Northern California, at the northwest corner of the Aminoil 7 West Leasehold. It had a design rating of 72.3 MWe gross. SMUD owned and operated the power plant for about 15 years until mid 1998 when SMUD sold the power plant to Calpine Corporation for $13 million. This paper chronicles the history of SMUDGEO and SMUD’s perspective of building and operating a geothermal power plant. Insight will be given regarding the decision to sell what was considered to be the most efficient geothermal power plant in the Geysers, if not the world.
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