Entwicklung eines ganzheitlichen Monitorings mit Unterstützung der  Glasfaserkabeltechnologie und Tracertechnik zur Verbesserung der Systemintegrität von Geothermieanlagen

In order to exploit the technically usable potential of deep geothermal energy significantly more in terms of decarbonization of district heating, a high degree of forecasting, production and operational reliability for geothermal plants and sustainable management of the reservoir are indispensable. For this, comprehensive monitoring of the plant and the reservoir is essential.

The GFK-Monitor project will develop a holistic monitoring system supported by fiber optics and tracer technology to improve the integrity of geothermal systems. Cooperation partners are Deutsches GeoForschungszentrum (GZF), Fraunhofer-Einrichtung für Energieinfrastrukturen und Geothermie (IEG), SWM Services GmbH (SWM) and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (UGOE).

The Chair of Hydrogeology plans to install a fiber optic monitoring system in an injection well and integrate it with the existing fiber optic system at the study site, which was installed in a production well as part of the Geothermal Alliance of Bavaria (GAB) in 2019. In addition, a push-pull tracer test accompanied by the fiber optic measurements will be performed to estimate the thermal-hydraulic interactions in the reservoir. For the first time at a geothermal site, fiber optic monitoring will be carried out simultaneously in the production and injection well into the reservoir, in the cementation of the anchor pipe tour and on telecommunication lines, and combined with marking tests as systematic data collection in the reservoir. This will address the important issues of proving wellbore integrity, optimizing deep pump operational control, reducing temperature losses, and monitoring microseismicity, subsidence, and thermal short circuits.

GFK-Monitor is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK).

More detailed information on the project and its work packages can be found at gfk-monitor.de.