USA, California: Successful Meeting Promotes Firm and Flexible Geothermal Energy

Staff workshop on Identifying Research Priorities on Flexibility and Other Operational Needs for Existing Geothermal Power Plants

Last week the California Energy Commission (CEC) hosted a staff workshop on Identifying Research Priorities on Flexibility and Other Operational Needs for Existing Geothermal Power Plants.

A panel made up of Steve Ponder, Geothermal Resources Council; Julio Garcia, Calpine Corporation; Josh Nordquist, Ormat Technologies; Randy Keller, CalEnergy Operations; John Muir, GreenFire Energy, and Andy Van Horn, GreenFire Energy, discussed how to move geothermal energy forward in the Golden State

To start off the meeting, Julio Garcia, Calpine Corporation, gave a presentation on Operational Flexibility of Geothermal Power. Julio demonstrated how Calpine has been able to ramp up or down electricity supply to the CAISO grid.

The CEC staff will now gather comments/feedback and develop the grant solicitation. The Geothermal topic will be included under a larger solicitation that covers two other technical topic areas (wind and small hydro). A 2 phase solicitation will be prepared for target release in or around Spring 2016.

Comments can also be submitted via email to: chuck.gentry@energy.ca.gov using the email subject heading: “COMMENTS: Geothermal Workshop”.  The deadline for comments is Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 5 pm PST.

• Staff Workshop Presentation
• Operational Flexability of Geothermal Power Presentation