| Abstract |
The maintenance of a geothermal plant is very dependent on local factors, namely, the geothermal system, location, weather, and climate. During the 28 years of operation of the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, almost every type of problem imaginable has come up, for example, corrosion, stress corrosion cracking, scaling, erosion, and slug flow. A district heating plant must be extremely reliable. There is no "spare" district heating plant, unlike in a good electrical grid system where there are usually redundancies and "spinning reserves". In this paper, the operation of the Svartsengi geothermal power plant will be described, how it was built in various stages, and what have been the most maintenance intensive issues. Solutions to various problems are also described. |