| Abstract |
The Don A. Campbell Geothermal Project1 in Mineral County, Nevada, reached firm operation in December 2013 and has since been providing more than 16 MW (net) of base-load renewable power to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Burbank Water and Power in southern California. The successful development of this project, ahead of time and below budget, and the plant?s performance exceeding its design, can be attributed to multiple factors, including: a rigorous and regimented exploration and development campaign that resulted in successful resource discovery, confirmation and development; streamlined permitting through close cooperation with all local, state and federal agencies while designing and siting all facilities to minimize environmental impact; power plant engineering tailored to the specific resource characteristics so as to maximize power generation and efficiency; creative business development that identified new customers and a new transmission path to deliver the power to them; fasttracked engineering, procurement and construction capable of meeting a challenging deadline; and a user-friendly and highly automated power plant design that allowed for swift start-up and commissioning and high availability while lowering operation and maintenance costs. This project also marks several ?firsts? for Ormat and for the U.S. renewable energy industry as a whole, on both technical and commercial fronts, to include: (a) the first 1 Formerly referred to by Ormat as the Wild Rose geothermal project, until it was renamed in memory of Don A. Campbell, a long time Ormat employee and a pioneer in the exploration, development and reservoir management of geothermal resources project to wheel renewable energy over NV Energy?s statewide high voltage transmission system, including the newly constructed 231-mile 500 kV One Nevada Transmission Line, from northern Nevada to serve load in the large population center of southern California; ; (b) the first geothermal project to be included in the resource portfolio of LADWP ? the nation?s largest municipal utility; (c) one of Ormat?s first large utility-scale binary geothermal power plant to utilize a low temperature 260°F geothermal resource; and, (d) the first geothermal project to be developed in Mineral County, Nevada, bringing major economic benefits while protecting the environment. |