Estado Actual De La Geotermia En Guatemala

GUATEMALA GEOTHERMAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENT, PROGRAM FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

Julio Palma and Alfredo René Roldán Manzo

EMPRESA DE GENERACIÓN DE ENERGÍA ELÉCTRICA

INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ELECTRIFICACIÓN –INDE-

Guatemala C.A.

ABSTRACT

INDE has five geothermal areas in reserve to develop, they are: Zunil, Amatitlán, Tecuamburro, San Marcos and Moyuta and is also working in Totonicapán.

Figure 1. GEOTHERMAL AREAS OF INTEREST

In Zunil I there is actually a 24 MW binary cycle geothermal power plant in production. In Amatitlán geothermal field, a backpressure power plant of 5 MW will produce during 2003 and 2004, in the meantime a 50 MW modular plant will be installed.

The 5 MW backpressure power plant will be moved to Zunil II geothermal field in 2005.

For the near future, pre-feasibility studies will carried out in Tecuamburro, San Marcos, Moyuta and Totonicapán fields.

INTRODUCTION

Research of geothermal resources in Guatemala start en 1972, using for that INDE´s funds

and finance from International Development Bank IDB and Organization of Petroleum Export Countries OPEC, there had been also technical and financial cooperation from Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE), ROCAP/AID, European Community, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The first studied area was Moyuta (Location 12, figure 1, 1972), where there were geothermal manifestations which characteristics showed high probability to use the resource for electric power generation. In 1975 two commercial diameter exploratory wells were drilled founded, unfortunately, temperature reversal. Due to this fact the research was focus in the Zunil field and later on in Amatitlán (Location 2 and 5, figure 1).

With the objective of to have a national inventory of geothermal resources and to have a better understanding to define the most promissory areas for investigation, in 1981 INDE and BRGM of France, with INDE´s funds and donation from OLADE carried on recognize studies at regional level in 13 areas (Figure 1) located along the volcanic chain that is to the south and crosses the country from east to West, from El Salvador border to the Mexico border, covering around 30% of the national land.

These studies showed that to the Zunil and Amatitlán areas, at that time as first priority, the areas of San Marcos, and Tecuamburro must be added. In priority order follows Los Achiotes in Santa Rosa province, Moyuta in Jutiapa and Ixtepeque-Ipala in Chiquimula. In third category, Palencia, Retana, Ayarza, Atitlán and Motagua were classified. In 1993, with the technical cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency –IAEA- the Totonicapán geothermal area was also identified as priority area.

GEOTHERMAL STUDIED AREAS

The areas studied up to the level of prefeaseability and feasibility and that has wells (slim holes or commercial wells) are showed in Figure 2.

ENERGY PRODUCTION IN THE PAST

With the purpose of make useful the available resource in Amatitlán geothermal area, at the middle of 1997 INDE approved the consultant service to “Evaluation of the field under production and exploitation of the existing wells”. The contract included installation of a back pressure power plant with 5 MW capacity, which will produce by 3 years from November 1998, producing 35 GWh/year ending that contract in November 2001.

Parallel during 1997, INDE asked for not reimbursable cooperation from the Japanese government, through JICA, to evaluate the extension of the Amatitlán field, including one or two deep commercial diameter exploratory wells, complementary studies have completed and the two wells were drilled; the evaluation of those wells gave a total production capacity of 7 MW.

In Zunil I Geothermal field, considering that there was enough capacity to produce up to 25 MW, Inde made a bid process to install a geothermal power plant in this area and at the end of 1993 Inde signed a contract with ORZUNIL I de Electricidad Limitada. According with the contract Orzunil I compromise will install and operate during 25 years a 24 MW power plant and INDE will provide the steam required for the plant operation. This power plant starts its production in October 1st. 1999

Figure 2. GEOTHERMAL STUDIED AREAS

FUTURE PROGRAMS

AMATITLÁN GEOTHERMAL FIELD

Based on the results obtained after the three years of operation of the backpressure power plant in Amatitlán and in the evaluation of the field made by Jica, Inde decide to promote the exploitation of this field through private investors. With this purpose in November 2001 Inde make the international bid process for the “Installation of geothermal power plant in Amatitlán”, the contract was adjudicated to the company Ormat Industries Ltda,

The program includes the installation of a modular geothermal power plant to produce up to 50 MW in the next five years.

Due to the facts that before the installation of the plant, Inde has to have authorization from the Minister of Energy and Mines, the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment from the Minister of Environmental and that the build process of the plant will take approximately 18 months, it was decided to buy and reinstall the 5 MW back pressure geothermal power plant in Amatitlán to generate electricity from January 2003 to December 2004.

ZUNIL II GEOTHERMAL AREA

Three slim holes were drilled during the Pre-feasibility study in Zunil II area; one of them was productive, producing 35 tons per hour of dry steam, which confirms that there is a geothermal reservoir. Pre-feasibility studies concluding that there is a commercially exploitable resource with a minimum capacity of 50 MW, based on these facts, Inde decided to continue with the evaluation of this area and planned to drill two production and one re-injection wells in 2003.

After the test of those new wells, it is planned to evaluate the reservoir in the area in a similar form that used to evaluate Amatitlán. Then, the 5 MW back pressure geothermal plant will be installed in Zunil II at the beginning of 2005 to produce at least by two years.

OTHER GEOTHERMAL AREAS

Based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed and ratified by the Government of Guatemala, and

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