The General Assembly of the Next Generation Flexible Trigeneration Geothermal ORC Plant (nGEL) project took place on 3-4 July, 2025, in the Kızıldere-I & Kizildere-II Geothermal Power Plants premises, located in the Sarayköy district of Denizli province, in southwestern Türkiye. The General Assembly was hosted by one of nGEL’s consortium members, Zorlu Enerji, the Kizildere Geothermal power plant operator. The two days of the event were outlined by work package presentations, a workshop, a site visit, working sessions, etc. Dr. Mahfuza Ahmed, Collaborative Research Leader at Technovative Solutions Ltd. attended the general assembly to lead the TVS team. This blog has been prepared based on a one-to-one interview with Dr Ahmed.
On 3 July, the event took place in the Kizildere-I and began with a Stakeholders’ Workshop attended by all participants. Dr Shahin Jamali, the coordinator of the nGEL project and the Head of Monitoring and AI at Fraunhofer IEG, and Tuğrul Hazar, the Technical Manager of the nGEL project and R&D, Asst. Manager at Zorlu Enerji, introduced the agenda and topics of the workshops to the participants, followed by presentations led by Fraunhofer ISE, VITO, and Fraunhofer IEG, ending with an open Q&A session. The stakeholders’ workshop offered a valuable opportunity to present the nGEL project's foundational concept and innovative technologies, particularly the integration of next-generation Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems and thermal energy storage solutions into the existing geothermal infrastructure at the Kizildere-II power plant, Denizly, Türkiye. The workshop highlighted the practical innovations of the nGEL project, showcasing how existing geothermal systems can be upgraded with technologies like enhanced ORC units, thermal storage, and absorption chillers to boost efficiency and flexibility. It emphasised a holistic energy management approach by integrating cold and hot thermal storage to address seasonal and daily energy demands. Stakeholders recognised the real-world value of these solutions for district heating and cooling, greenhouse operations, and improved energy resilience. There was strong interest in the scalability of these innovations across other geothermal sites, and the event fostered valuable collaboration and knowledge exchange among industry experts, policymakers, and energy providers, paving the way for future deployment and commercialisation. The stakeholders’ workshop confirmed that the nGEL project is a technical innovation and a stepping-stone toward more innovative, integrated, and user-focused geothermal energy systems. It highlighted the project’s role in transforming geothermal power into a more adaptive and valuable contributor to the future energy mix.
Following the workshop, a series of Work Package (WP) presentations took place on the first day, led by the corresponding leaders: Requirement Analysis and Specification (WP1) and Demonstration and Validation (WP4) by ZOREN, Development of Cold Thermal Energy Storage (WP2) and Project Management & Coordination (WP7) by Fraunhofer, Control Strategy and System for Flexible ORC (WP3) by VITO, Sustainability Analysis and Awareness Campaign (WP5) by TVS, and Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation (WP6) by Geolorn Ireland (GEOI). The attendees also visited the Kızıldere-II Geothermal Power Plant site as a part of the first day's agenda.
The nGEL-integrated ORC that the nGEL project partner, RePG, will develop will be implemented and demonstrated at the Kizildere-II power plant, making the site a critical location for the project partners. On this backdrop, a site visit was essential for the relevant partners to conduct a detailed assessment and survey of the area, allowing them to evaluate where and how the nGEL-integrated ORC system can be effectively installed within the existing infrastructure at Kizildere-II. A site visit to the Kızıldere-II power plant was essential for the TVS, as both the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and cost analysis demanded an in-depth understanding of the facility's operations, infrastructure, and geographical context. Gaining first-hand insight into the layout, technology used, and operational parameters of the Kızıldere-II plant was critical for accurately assessing its environmental and economic performance within the broader scope of the study.
On 4 July, the General Assembly took place in the Kizildere-II power plant premises, began and featured two working sessions and a concluding session, all led collectively by the participants. The sessions offered opportunities for discussions on project progress, future trajectory, and strategic alignment.
TVS at the Assembly:
TVS, leading the “Sustainability Analysis and Awareness Campaign” (WP5), focused on Sustainability Analysis and Social Awareness campaigns, gave a comprehensive presentation on the work updates about the tasks in this work package. The presentation provided updates on several key areas of the project following WP5. It covered the development of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model to evaluate the environmental impact of the nGEL-integrated Geothermal ORC plant, as well as the progress on a thermo-economic optimisation model that will be designed to identify optimal solutions, such as maximum thermal efficiency and minimum Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Updates on the development of the nGEL Digital Twin platform were also shared. The presenter also highlighted the challenges and opportunities of each task and clarified the project partners' roles in this work package.
TVS also actively participated in the working sessions, which enabled valuable knowledge exchange, particularly in control system cost modelling, thermodynamic and economic modelling, LCA, and digital twin. These discussions have significantly supported the progress of the tasks led by TVS. It was noted that nGEL partner RePG from Türkiye agreed to provide operational data from their existing ORC system, which will be crucial for TVS in developing the thermodynamic model and advancing the work on developing the Digital Twin platform.
TVS presented its upcoming activities during the presentation as well, which include developing a parametric cost model for controller components such as Energy Management System (EMS), STORM controller, piping and instrumentation, control valves, and others—the architecture of the Digital Twin. Using the RePG reference data, TVS is carrying out works on thermodynamic modelling. Efforts are underway to formulate a comprehensive dissemination and communication plan for the nGEL project to effectively share outcomes and engage stakeholders. Additionally, dissemination and communication activities are regularly carried out to promote the project’s innovations and foster collaboration with wider audiences.
What’s Next?
Following this General Assembly (GA) meeting, TVS will regularly catch up with the Control Strategy and System for Flexible ORC (WP3) leader and the task leaders within the work package to have a detailed understanding of the Process Flow Diagram (PFD) of the EMS of the nGEL integrated ORC and work out the components of the EMS. This is to evaluate the cost analysis of the EMS of the nGEL integrated ORC, a task in WP3 led by TVS. The existing plant data will be used by RePG to develop and validate the thermodynamic modelling of the reference ORC plant. Frequent meetings with the relevant partners will be arranged to gather knowledge that is related to the development of the architecture of the Digital Twin.
This project has received funding from the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No 101148170.
