Earthquake early warning system for geothermal binary power plant in Indonesia

The operational safety and reliability of geothermal binary power plants is an essential aspect for the successful application of this technology. Besides the technology itself, external causes can also influence the reliability of the plants. Many geothermally used areas have an increased seismic activity which can lead to the failure of geothermal power plants. Damages can be prevented by a timely shutdown of the plant or parts of the plant, such as the turbine and thus can increase the plant reliability. We establish, test and further develop an independent early warning system at the site of the geothermal binary demonstration power plant in Pangolombian-Lahendong, (Indonesia). The density of seismic events is high enough in this area and up to now the demonstration power plant had two turbine bearing damages because of earthquakes located in the area of Northern Molucca islands. The early warning system consists of 10 Raspberry Shakes, which are Raspberry Pi based geophones and one central computer. Each Raspberry Shake is equipped with its own data processing unit and is able to send data to a central computer via mobile communication. Based on this data, operationally relevant signals for the power plant are generated such as “turbine trip” or “plant shut down” in order to prevent it from damages. Such an early warning system is not only important for geothermal power plants, it is of general relevance for sensitive infrastructure that has to be protected against damages caused by earthquakes. The most important challenge is to detect seismic events early enough and to determine their intensity fast enough in order to bring the plant into a save operating mode. Within this contribution we will present the motivation, the technical concept and the integration of the earthquake early-warning system into the power plant control system.     «

The operational safety and reliability of geothermal binary power plants is an essential aspect for the successful application of this technology. Besides the technology itself, external causes can also influence the reliability of the plants. Many geothermally used areas have an increased seismic activity which can lead to the failure of geothermal power plants. Damages can be prevented by a timely shutdown of the plant or parts of the plant, such as the turbine and thus can increase the plant...     »