The 26 MW Cove Fort Geothermal Power Plant

Abstract

The Cove Fort geothermal resource has been explored since the 1970s and generated electricity from 1985 to 2003. The original power plant consisted of Ormat Energy Converters (OEC), a topping turbine and a condensing steam turbine totaling just over 10 MW. Enel Green Power acquired the project rights in 2007. The resource characteristics were evaluated for repowering the power plant and several alternatives were considered in order to maximize the owner’s return on investment (ROI). Namely, the design objective is to maximize generation output given the resource data. Ormat did not propose an off-the-shelf pre-engineered unit, rather analyzed the resource, carried out various custom engineering alternative schemes for that resource and chose the most efficient option.