A study on operation and maintenance of flash steam geothermal power plants : Reykjanes power plant

Abstract

For a geothermal power plant to operate prosperously, series of activities starting from optimum design and installation to efficient monitoring of operation and maintenance (O&M) should be carried out precisely. Experience acquired during real O&M of a geothermal power plant gives a practical insight into observing the quality of material and equipment, optimal repair and replacement, troublemaking factors affecting the power plant’s performance and management of failure incidents by utilizing suitable devices. In this report operation and maintenance procedures of Reykjanes power plant in SW-Iceland is analysed. Most maintenance practice done in this power plant is preventive maintenance done on basis of routine and annual outage period maintenance. Efficient planning of outage minimizes tasks and time needed for scheduled and forced activities and consequently maximizes the reliability and availability of the power plant. The O&M team running both Svartsengi and Reykjanes power plants have gained valuable know-how to maintain reliability, availability, maintainability, and other critical performance factors at a satisfactory level so that electricity productivity and economic profitability of the power plants are guaranteed. This study presents common problems occurring in the running of a geothermal power plant and their solutions, as well as analysis of outage period including required actions for each component of the power plant, manpower and cost breakdowns.