Case Study of an EGS Power Plant in Southern Hungary

Abstract

EGS Hungary Consortium is participating in a project partially funded by the European Commission (NER300 programme) for the construction of an EGS Power Plant to be located in South Hungary. Three locations were considered for an EGS Power Plant in the vicinity of the municipalities of Kecskemét, Ferencszállás and Battonya, all in South Hungary. Two of those locations were more closely evaluated: Ferencszállás and Battonya. The Battonya site is the most desirable option with higher heat flow and shallower wells. Projects funded by the NER300 programme are required to be innovative and the main hurdles encountered during the preliminary design were: large electric generation requirements, uncertainty of the reservoir rock and temperature gradient, reservoir creation and induced seismicity, down hole pump operational limits, water losses in the reservoir, construction and complexities during reservoir creation and drilling. In order to mitigate risk factors in the project, the reservoir creation was split into smaller phases with decision gates, where the results are determined before continuing. Reservoir creation is a challenging design aspect and is the most innovative part of this project which requires further work and re–evaluation during the creation process. The benefits of a successful project are high and could further assist Europe in gaining more renewable energy from EGS systems.