TownRock Energy (TRE) has been Lead Technical Consultant providing Design, Construction, Operations and Maintenance support since 2021, having won the responsibility due to a longstanding reputation of delivering innovative feasibility studies and exploratory drilling and testing of mine water geothermal systems.
Since TRE’s involvement in this project, the company has developed and put into practice a first-of-its-kind operations and maintenance (O&M) package and associated handbook, which encompasses key responsibilities, regulatory requirements and operational procedures necessary for a cost-effective and continually improving mine water geothermal system. This O&M package includes optimisation of the heat distribution as well as borehole and plant room maintenance.
Through this O&M offering, TRE has conducted the following activities, with invaluable experience gained in design, construction and operation of mine water and deep geothermal as well as open-loop shallow aquifer geothermal and ground source heat pump ‘geothermal probe’ borehole systems:
- Hydrogeology – Thorough data collection (via internet-access sensor downloads, in-person diver deployment and retrieval, manual dips) and monitoring of key data sets – flow rates, borehole levels, fluid properties and other environmental data for hydrogeological model refinement. Reporting to both client for internal system improvement and proactive investment, and external to regulators.
- Maintenance – On-site remedial operations to manage mine water abstraction and discharge over time to ensure adequate flow rate and water quality is delivered.
- Management – Liaison with the heat pump specialist to develop an improved “systems thinking” approach to balance efficiency of heat delivered and abstraction of mine water thermal reservoir.
- Education – De-risking and enablement of best practice through client funded long-term data analysis and widespread dissemination of knowledge and findings to the wider community.