Real-time Monitoring and Optimization of Geothermal Plants

This paper presents the design and implementation of a geothermal doublet digital twin which allows for several functionalities in real time: - Monitoring of doublet performance and emission - Monitoring critical processes in the production such as corrosion, erosion and scaling - Detection of events and anomalies in the production - Process control and optimization based on several objectives and operational constraints An integrated fluid flow solver was developed to flexibly solve the production characteristics (flow rate, thermal energy) from the producer to the injector well. The developed solver was connected to time-series databases for process monitoring data and several modules to monitor key performance indicators (KPI) of the geothermal plant plus the model-based monitoring of critical parameters such as corrosion, erosion and clogging in real time. The developed workflow was validated on a low-enthalpy geothermal doublet, representative for production from sedimentary reservoirs. Three application examples were demonstrated including real-time pipeline integrity (corrosion-erosion monitoring), Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) performance monitoring and prescriptive analytics to optimize the plant operation based on multiple objectives and constraints. The continuous monitoring of production, pipeline integrity and the performance of the ESP allows the operators to detect off-normal events and deviations from the normal operation. By utilization the technology on the example dataset, an optimum utilization of the geothermal plant and CHP (Combined Heat and Power) was identified which led to 12% reduction in CO2 emissions (kg CO2/GJ). The optimization capability allows the user to explore systematically the optimal operation of the plant.