The John L. Featherstone Plant (formerly Hudson Ranch Power 1) is the first new stand alone geothermal plant in the Salton Sea resource area in 20 years and includes two of the largest production wells in the world. This power station has the first operating triple flash geothermal steam turbine in the world, generating a nameplate capacity of 60 MW. The power project was a joint venture with Energy Source and Mighty River Power (now Mercury Energy).

Reporting to the Energy Source Board monthly, RESPEC staff managed the capital and O&M budgets, construction schedule, and employee hiring. The RESPEC team also coordinated the construction inspection, turnover, and operation of the power plant; resource production facilities; and wells. The project has three production wells and four injection wells, each 6,000 to 8,000 feet deep; two of the wells are very prolific, delivering more than 40 MW each to the station. The $430 million project was completed within budget and on schedule.

Today, the plant is commercially successful, running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, producing and delivering 500 GWh of base load renewable electricity annually to the Salt River project.

RESPEC’s Dan Hoyer managed the development of the exploration and drilling program for three exploratory wells in New Zealand. He also developed the procurement strategy, budget, and schedule and implemented the exploration program.

Dan’s team successfully retrieved cores and logged and tested the wells. The project proved the commercial viability of a new resource area of approximately 7 square kilometers. The three wells were approximately 3,000 meters deep and drilled within budget and schedule requirements. To support the financial model, Dan led the peer review for the 30-year development plan, including geothermal reserves estimates, make-up drilling schedule, and operations and maintenance (O&M) budgets. The $475 million project was approved by the Tauhara North No. 2 Trust and Mercury Energy’s Boards. The project was constructed from July 2011 to September 2013.

Today, Ngatamariki is a commercially successful binary power plant with an installed capacity of 82 megawatts (MW) and is the largest binary power plant in the world. The plant is supplied by three production wells and four injection wells with dry cooling, resulting in zero carbon emissions. The station runs typically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, producing 700 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually.

RESPEC team member Dan Hoyer provided project management for the Djibouti exploration project at the Fiale geothermal field in East Africa. The project aimed to assess the commercial viability of the geothermal resource in Fiale Caldera in the Lake Assal region. The team developed a geologic prognosis and drilling targets; designed the civil works, including road and pad locations; and provided the exploratory well design, drilling program, casing, wellhead, and downhole equipment design.

Before implementing the project, Dan led a team to develop an Environmental Social Management Plan and held stakeholder outreach meetings that included local ministers and the Djibouti City Prefect. The results and mitigation measures were presented to stakeholders in three languages, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries and the Ministry of Energy and Water.

Because each funding agency required unique procurement procedures, four procurement packages were developed and implemented. These packages included civil works (local bid, African Development Bank), steel materials (international bid, French Development Bank), a drilling contractor (international bid, World Bank), and construction of a 60-person camp (local bid, National Fund). Dan’s team, which included the project manager, drill site supervisor, and well site geologist, provided daily in-country drilling support, completed well and reservoir testing services on three successfully drilled wells, and finalized a feasibility report and technical equity investment package.