By Hayden Seder
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Idaho recently granted POWER Engineers a 2019 Engineering Excellence Award for its work on the Kizildere-III geothermal plant owned and operated by Zorlu Energy in Turkey.
Geothermal plants use steam and water found in the ground, making it a clean, renewable form of power, while most plants use some sort of fuel to run turbines, which spin and generate power. Geofluid energy content and gas content are different for every geothermal project, meaning designs for each plant have to be customized for each installation.
The team working on the plant was based out of POWER Engineers’ offices in Hailey and Boise.
POWER Engineers began working in Turkey on large-flash geothermal plant designs in mid/late 2002, according to Dwight Cole, senior project manager at POWER.
POWER completed a first geothermal plant, for Zorlu, in 2015. For the Kizildere-III plant, POWER conducted an initial project evaluation study and concept design, and then provided detailed plant and separator station design, including civil, architectural, mechanical, structural, electrical and controls disciplines. They also assisted with equipment and materials procurement, construction, startup and commissioning activities.
“Each client and each project is different and requires a unique solution,” Cole said of the project. “There are a lot of factors involved in plant design.”
The result was Kizildere-III, Turkey’s largest geothermal power plant and one of the world’s only triple-flash, plus combined-cycle-configuration geothermal plants, an arrangement that combines two well-known types of technology to increase efficiency.
With the addition of this plant to Turkey’s other geothermal plants, the country hopes to further reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. The plant has also created numerous new jobs during development, construction and operation, and contributes to free district heating, greenhouse cultivation and thermal tourism.
Educational tours are being conducted at the new plant for student and industry groups to learn more about the benefits of geothermal power and to inspire the next generation of engineers in their local communities.
Hailey-based POWER Engineers has completed projects in every state and across the world. POWER Engineers has 45 offices (three of which are international) and more than 2,500 employees. The company also works for 19 of the largest 20 investor-owned utilities in the country. POWER provides their design services all over the world, including North, Central and South America, Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Iceland, the Caribbean and New Zealand.