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Show Peaor PlQfirtt tetau bbo W 11 .PMIIips M through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena and built under contract to them. Phillips Petroleum is letting them utilize the effluent from 54-3 to test it, while they are conducting a reservoir test at Roosevelt Springs. The plant cost approximately It won't be 1982 before the first power plant will be generating gen-erating electricity from Roosevelt Springs geother-mal geother-mal reservoir, it will be sometime in March 1978. But the transmission lines will not be very long traveling only to trailers, a machine shop and two re-Injection re-Injection pumps at Phillips Petroleum well 54-3. The hydrothermal -one -megawatt plant invented by Roger S. Sprankle, of Hydro-thermal Hydro-thermal Power Co., Ltd. of Vie jo, California utilizes both steam and geothermal fluids in a revolutionary new concept. A little corrosion, normally creating temen-dous temen-dous problems for conventional conven-tional power plants, actually makes this Invention more efficient, according to Sprankle. Spran-kle. The one megawatt (one million kilowatts) plant is the - first of it's size, though smaller ones have been tested test-ed successfully. It was financed fin-anced by the Department of Energy (formerly ERDA) $5,000,000 or $5.00 per kilowatt. kilo-watt. The plant and equipment were moved to the site last week, and a huge crane was moving the big tanks for the tailings in place Thursday when the COUNTY NEWS showed up. Sprankle is assisted by his partners in hydrothermal, his dad, J. A. Sprankle and brother, Allan Sprankle and Dr. Richard A. McKay of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lee Pfeiffer of Pfeiffer and Associates, As-sociates, who are conducting conduct-ing the reservoir test for Phillips Petroleum, andAAA Welding and Roustabout. The hydrothermal power plant could probably be built up to 100 megawatts, according accord-ing to McKay and Sprankle, but they see little practical use for one over 15 megawatts, meg-awatts, since It will sit right next to the well head (it's called a well head power plant) and uses the steam and geothermal fluids right from the well and then transmits the electricity to a centrally central-ly located transformer. Conventional Con-ventional steam or hydroelectric hydro-electric plants would require the steam and geothermal fluids be piped up to a mile to the plant. Besides being more efficient ef-ficient to transport the electricity, elec-tricity, the well head type hydrothermal plant can accept ac-cept a wide range of well head pressures and geothermal geother-mal fluids. It will even tolerate tol-erate some sands. Corrosion Corro-sion build up which Is very common with most goether-mal goether-mal fluids (Roosevelt Springs is considered very clean with only 8,000 ppm) tends to reduce the factory tolerances and make the meshed screw type rotors 1 more efficient. They also keep the build up from becoming be-coming too great. The plant is expected to be in operation in early March. If it proves successful it might revolutionize the geothermal geo-thermal industry. At least the Sprankles hope so. |