Kocani Geothermal District Heating System (New Activities for Proper Completion)

Abstract

After a ten year period of stagnation, the first geothermal development activities in Macedonia have been realized over the past three years. This is underlining the need for the definition of a state strategy for geothermal development and separate strategies for optimisation of the existing projects in order to avoid possible mistakes and wrong decisions.
The definition of the optimisation concept for the geothermal system GEOTERMA in Kocani and its incorporation in the strategy for its full completion and further development are described and discussed in this paper. The discussion includes the consequences to the organization of the exploitation, technological and technical completion of the users and direct results of realized first optimization works (stopping the decrease of the water level in the reservoir, opening possibilities for connection of new users, protection of the reservoir of Fe particles penetration and blocking, etc.). Also the second step of completion is described, consisting of the connection of the industrial zone of the town and completion of the second reinjection well, enabling the increase of the annual capacity of the geothermal resource from 1.350.000 to 1.700.000 m3/year, which is a significant step towards reaching the final goal of 2.000.000 m3/year.