Raft River 5MW Power Plant: a small binary power plant

The Raft River 5MW power plant is a binary cycle pilot plant. The system uses isobutane in a dual boiling cycle. This cycle was selected because the well field and temperatures were not well known at the time of cycle selection, and therefore, a boiling cycle was desirable. The dual boiling feature provides about 15 to 20% more power and makes the output less sensitive to changes in geothermal temperature changes than a single boiler system. The plant design was based upon a 290F geothermal fluid temperature at the inlet to the plant and has a gross nominal generator rating of 5MW; however, actual output will vary according to ambient wet bulb temperatures over a range from 4.4MW to 6.2MW with the actual plant inlet temperature of 278F being obtained. The plant is supplied by three production wells. Geothermal fluid boost pumps within the plant inlet provide the pressure necessary to overcome plant pressure drop and return the fluid to the two injection sites. All long runs of the buried geothermal piping external to the plant boundaries use cement-asbestos pipe. The physical size and manpower requirements for the Raft River facility, the economics of small plant operation, and operational experience are discussed