Posted on: Friday, January 24, 2003
Geothermal power to rev up soon
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
After months of delays and millions of dollars in losses, Puna Geothermal Venture is poised to put its new geothermal well into operation next week to boost the amount of electricity available on the Big Island.
The new well, drilled about 23 miles southeast of Hilo, should increase PGV's total output to between 22 and 25 megawatts — enough electricity to power 22,000 to 25,000 homes.
The additional power supply will reduce the likelihood of blackouts for Big Island consumers, who had to put up with a number of electrical outages since PGV's main production well failed and was shut down last April.
"We certainly wish that we didn't encounter this problem, but we've got to live and learn and certainly we had a valuable lesson here," said Barry Mizuno, representative for PGV's managing owner, the Constellation Energy Group.
PGV has more work to do before it will be able to provide the 30 megawatts it is obligated by contract to deliver to Hawaii Electric Light Co., a Hawaiian Electric Co. subsidiary.
PGV is producing only about 5 megawatts.
Power shortages caused three rolling blackouts in November, according to a HELCO spokesman, and customers were hit with a series of other outages when other generating units failed or were shut down for a variety of reasons.
HELCO has been imposing penalties on PGV for failing to provide the power, and Mizuno estimated that such fines will total $500,000 by the time PGV boosts its production back up to required levels.
More painful than the fines is the loss of electricity sales worth millions of dollars. Mizuno declined to provide specific numbers.
"The longer I'm down, I am unable to get my revenues, so there's a real big incentive for me to be up at full output," he said.
The PGV wells extract water and steam, heated by underground magma, that are used to drive turbines and produce power.
PGV's troubles began last April when the company shut down a production well known as KS-11 because a casing that lined part of the well wall was failing from heat and corrosion. Halting production at that well dropped output at the plant from about 30 megawatts to about 5 megawatts, where it remains today.
The company began drilling a new well in August and planned to have it operating by December, but encountered troubles when a drill bit became stuck in the well 500 feet down. After a month of trying to fix the problem, PGV closed the well, moved the drilling rig about 20 feet and started again, Mizuno said.
Soft, sandy areas of earth more than 5,000 feet down caused new problems and delays for the second drilling effort, he said. Before the drilling could resume, the company had to use concrete reinforcement to prevent a collapse.
With the drilling now complete, the plant's production should jump back up to more than 22 megawatts when the new well begins operating Jan. 31, Mizuno said.
The company plans to ratchet back up to 30 megawatts by early April, when it expects to have completed another drilling operation that would convert the old KS-11 well into a reinjection well.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
