GE Automated Solution Helps Turkish Geothermal Power Plants Analyze Data and Save Water

Three geothermal power plants in Turkey, owned by Kipaş Holding, have significantly reduced water usage, lowered CO₂ emissions, decreased corrosion and are using the Industrial Internet to analyze data with help from GE’s water treatment technology.

GE honored Kipaş Holding with the Return on Environment (ROE) award to recognize the company for its noteworthy reductions in water usage, lowered CO₂ emissions and decreased corrosion.

Kipaş Holding recently expanded three of its existing Maren Enerji geothermal plants and is constructing one new plant—all with GE water treatment technology. The three existing plants, together, produce a total of 68 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The new facility will produce 24 MW.

“Today, geothermal is a viable power generation source and renewable energy alternative in Turkey. We chose GE’s water technologies for our four geothermal plants because it best fit our environmental goals,” said Mehmet Sisman, general manager, Maren Enerji. “Partnering with GE’s water business, Maren Enerji saves $500,000 annually.”

Harnessing the power of the Industrial Internet, the Maren Enerji geothermal plants in Aydin, Turkey, are using GE’s InSight* Knowledge Management Solution, a remote monitoring and diagnostic platform, to monitor the performance of the water treatment systems at the power plants. GE’s InSight, a Web-based platform, helps maximize the plants’ reliability through real-time visualization and diagnostics related to keeping the water systems’ performance and the contributing parameters on track.

GE also provided an automatic chemical solution preparation unit to remove the chance of human error in preparing the solution manually. In geothermal power plants, chemical dosing needs to be precise and GE’s unique solution ensures accuracy. GE also provided an environmentally friendly solution to reduce water consumption in an area that is experiencing a shortage of agricultural-quality water. The geothermal power plants have one of the world’s longest underground piping networks to deliver the chemical to the geothermal wells. Due to GE’s automatic chemical solution preparation unit and the underground delivery system, Maren Enerji has ceased truck deliveries within agricultural zones, which improved air quality by eliminating dust and lowering CO₂ emissions due to less traffic from delivery trucks.

For Maren Enerji’s savings, GE honored the company with the ROE award, which recognizes customers for significantly surpassing and improving environmental and industrial operational goals and balancing industrial demands. During the ROE three-tier selection process, GE examined set goals, as well as the achieved environmental, operational and financial benefits. The ROE is a prestigious award given to honor a significant environmental (water, energy, resource) component.

“As government support for renewable sources of energy increases in Turkey, we have seen a rise in geothermal power projects. Today, geothermal is used for more than just central heating and is recognized as a viable form of power generation. By 2023, 30 percent of Turkey's energy needs will be met by renewables and GE is a leader in the region, providing innovative technologies, products and services to help increase the capacity of the Turkish grid through renewable energy,” said Ralph Hadley, regional executive, Europe and Russia—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water.

The implementation of InSight by Maren Enerji at their geothermal plants represents the growing market for knowledge management. These facilities join the list of several hundred customers around the globe currently employing this technology from GE.