Publications Details

The Amplify Monitoring Team: Initial Design, Development, and Deployment of Seismic Monitoring Systems for In-Field and Near-Field EGS Well Stimulation

Robertson, Michelle; Su, Jiann-Cherng S.; Kaven, J.O.; Hopp, Chet; Hirakawa, Evan; Gasperikova, Erika; Dobson, Patrick; Schwering, Paul C.; Nakata, Nori; Majer, Ernest L.

The DOE GeoVision study identified that Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) resources have the potential to provide a significant contribution toward achieving the goal of converting the U.S. electricity system to 100% clean energy over the next few decades. To further the implementation of commercial EGS development, DOE's Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) initiated the Wells of Opportunity (WOO) Amplify program, where unproductive wells in selected geothermal fields are to be stimulated using EGS technologies, resulting in increased power production from these resources. As part of the WOO-Amplify project, GTO assembled the Amplify Monitoring Team (AMT), whose role is to provide in-field and near-field seismic monitoring design, deployment and data analysis for stimulations under the WOO-Amplify initiative. This team, consisting of scientists and engineers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and the US Geological Survey (USGS), is working with WOO-Amplify EGS Operators in Nevada to develop and deploy optimized seismic monitoring systems at four geothermal fields where WOO-Amplify well stimulations are planned: Don A. Campbell, Tungsten Mountain and Jersey Valley operated by Ormat Technologies, and Patua operated by Cyrq Patua Acquisition Company LLC. Using geologic and geophysical field data provided by the WOO-Amplify teams, the focus of the AMT is to develop advanced simulation and modeling techniques, design targeted seismic monitoring arrays, develop innovative and cost-effective methodologies for drilling seismic monitoring boreholes, deploy effective seismic instrumentation, and facilitate the use of microseismic data to monitor well stimulation and flow within the geothermal reservoir. Realtime seismic data from the four WOO-Amplify sites will be streamed to a publicly accessible Amplify Monitoring website. AMT's advanced simulations and template matching techniques applied during pre-stimulation phases can help improve understanding of potential seismic hazard and inform the Operator's Induced Seismicity Mitigation Protocol (ISMP). Over the next two years, AMT will be drilling, instrumenting, and recording seismic data at the WOO-Amplify field sites, telemetering the seismic waveform data to AMT's central processing system and providing the processed location data to the WOO Amplify Operator teams. These data and monitoring systems will be critical for effective monitoring of the effects of planned well stimulation and extended flow tests during the next stage of the WOO-Amplify project.