Transient Simulation of Geothermal Combined Heat and Power Generation for a Resilient Energetic and Economic Evaluation

Geothermal power plants based on the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) are used to convert the thermal power of brine into electricity. The efficiency and profitability of these power plants can be increased by an additional heat supply. The purpose of this study is to evaluate different combined heat and power (CHP) concepts for geothermal applications by thermodynamic and economic considerations. Therefore, a dynamic simulation model of a double-stage ORC is developed to perform annual return simulations. The transient ORC model is validated in a wide range by operational data of an existing power plant in the German Molasse Basin. A district heating system is considered and the corresponding heat load profiles are derived from a real geothermal driven heating network. For CHP, parallel and combined configurations are considered. The validation of the transient model is satisfying with a correlation coefficient of 0.99 between the simulation and real power plant data. The results show that additional heat extraction leads to a higher exergetic efficiency and a higher profitability. The exergetic efficiency and the profitability are increased by up to 7.9% and 16.1%, respectively. The combined concept shows a slightly better performance than the parallel configuration. The efficiency can be increased by up to 1.3%. In economic terms, for CHP the annual return can be increased by at least 2,500,000 Euro. In principle, the dynamic model shows reliable results for high power gradients. This enables an investigation of geothermal ORC models for the reserve market in future works.