DRILLING OUTLOOK
A panel of industry experts discussed challenges and opportunities around geothermal development at the 2022 IADC ART
Conference on 30 August . Pictured are (from left) Joey Husband, Nabors Drilling; Cindy Taff, Sage Geosystems; Barry Smither-
man, Texas Geothermal Energy Alliance; and Gustavo Perez, EarthBridge Energy.

eration. Producing more power per well
can reduce the number of wells that need
to be drilled.

“Projects with super-hot rock and higher
temperatures will deliver a higher magni-
tude of power per well,” Mr Husband said.

“If you can deliver 30 MW per well and
reduce the number of wells you need, that
really reduces your development costs.”
Interest in geothermal
Some work may also be needed to
change how the public perceives geother-
mal energy, Mr Smitherman said. Because
it still only makes up such a small percent-
age of the global energy mix, geothermal is
not often discussed as a reliable renewable
resource. However, given the thin margin
between available supply and demand,
the additional volumes geothermal can
provide would be valuable.

In Texas, Mr Smitherman noted that
the Electric Reliability Council of Texas
(ERCOT) anticipates having around 90 GW
of installed power available from all avail-
able energy sources next year, while usage
is estimated to peak at around 80 GW,
typically in the summer months. Any dis-
ruption to the power supply – like Winter
Storm Uri in 2021, which took an estimated
50 GW of power off the grid – could spell
26 catastrophe for the state. The TXGEA is
currently crafting an agenda for the Texas
State Legislature on potential steps to pro-
mote geothermal development.

“We’re dealing with a fairly small mar-
gin when it comes to summer heat. If 90
GW is all we’re going to have next sum-
mer and if we have an interruption – like
if a nuclear plant goes down or we have
some weather event – then we’re going
to need every megawatt we can find,” Mr
Smitherman said. “If we had an additional
1,000 MW of geothermal that could’ve been
dispatched during the most critical time
of Winter Storm Uri, we could have ridden
through some of the outages and avoided
the highest price spikes that we saw. We’ll
take whatever we can get, because we are
likely going to be tight on several occa-
sions going forward.”
Geothermal can also play a role in cre-
ating localized microgrids, or intercon-
nected loads that act as a single control-
lable entity, Ms Taff said. These microgrids
can disconnect from traditional grids and
operate autonomously, providing a sus-
tainable power-generation option that
also protects against grid failure. Sage
Geosystems is working with the US Air
Force and the Texas Air National Guard
on a feasibility study to deploy closed-
loop geothermal energy systems to supply
power to Ellington Field Joint Reserve
Base in Houston. The aim is to build a geo-
thermal power facility at a military instal-
lation in Texas in the near future.

Geothermal-powered microgrids can
also provide sustainable energy to under-
served areas that may lack adequate
transmission infrastructure. “You can go
into the middle of Kenya, where there may
not be the structures that can generate
electricity, drill a single well and produce
that 3 MW of power,” Ms Taff said. “It can
service communities without having to
rely on long transmission lines.” DC
“There are a lot of initiatives going on to reduce
the risk in geothermal, including surface work on
the rig and downhole technology to handle both
the BHA and the completions.”
- Joey Husband, Nabors Drilling
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • DRILLING CONTRACTOR