Soultz-sous-Forêts Geothermal Reservoir: Structural Model Update and Thermo-Hydraulic Numerical Simulations Based on Three Years of Operation Data

Abstract

The geothermal powerplant of Soultz-sous-Forêts (France) is investigating the possibility of producing more energy with the same infrastructure by reinjecting the geothermal fluid at lower temperatures. Indeed, during the operation of the powerplant, the geothermal fluid is currently reinjected at 60–70 °C in a deep fractured granite reservoir, and the MEET project aims to test its reinjection at 40 °C. A 3D hydrothermal study was performed in order to evaluate the spreading of the thermal front during colder reinjection and its impact on the production temperature. In the first step, a 3D structural model at fault scale was created, integrating pre-existing models from 2D vintage seismic profiles, vertical seismic profiles, seismic cloud structure and borehole image logs calibrated with well data. This geometrical model was then adapted to be able to run hydrothermal simulation. In the third step, a 3D hydrothermal model was built based on the structural model. After calibration, the effect of colder reinjection on the production temperature was calculated. The results show that a decrease of 10 °C in the injection temperature leads to a drop in the production temperature of 2 °C after 2 years, reaching 3 °C after 25 years of operation. Lastly, the accuracy of the structural model on which the simulations are based is discussed and an update of the structural model is proposed in order to better reproduce the observations.