Piet van Riemsdijk has been working at Geothermal Maasdijk, Netherlands, as a construction manager three days a week since March. "My role is to ensure that everything is technically sound in terms of construction. This involves constant consultation and coordination. Is everything attached properly? Is it insulated? If not, we need to address that; if it is, we can move to the next phase. We repeatedly check that everything is well assembled and safe. Otherwise, you can't commission the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, for example. We are now in the phase where we test the equipment and begin test runs, which we refer to as cold commissioning and hot commissioning in technical terms."
What does this mean?
Cold commissioning involves verifying that all signals (pressure, water flow, and speed) are correctly received by the control system. This includes testing the pumps and circulating water in the system. If the results are satisfactory, hot commissioning follows. In this phase, heat is gradually introduced into the system, and the heat network is also gradually warmed up. Only when the heat network reaches the desired temperature can heat from the geothermal source be introduced into it.
Production pump provides hot water supply
"We will then commission the ESP pump (Electrical Submersible Pump) from doublet two. This is the production pump that supplies the geothermal hot water. This means the drilling team will need to be ready soon," Piet says. "The ESP pump was installed in April at a depth of about 800 meters and will soon begin pumping hot water from the well. The pump is currently on standby for the start of the production phase. However, everything in the above-ground plant, including the software, must be in order first."
Source: Geothermal Heat Maasdijk