Susan Petty
16 W. Harrison St., Suite 204,
Seattle, WA 98119
Phone 206-217-5960
Fax 206-285-0425
Experience Summary
Ms. Petty has over 25 years experience in the geothermal industry in electrical and direct use project
economics, optimizing of power plants to meet resource conditions, reservoir evaluation, reservoir modeling,
well, plant and wellfield performance data analysis, well testing and test data analysis. She has also assisted
in negotiation of geothermal lease agreements, power sales agreements, geothermal project financing
agreements and geothermal property sales and purchases. Ms. Petty has done work on geothermal electrical
generation projects in Nevada at Steamboat, Dixie Valley, Rye Patch, Soda Lake, Fallon, Desert Peak, Brady
Hot springs and direct use projects at Brady, Elko and Moana. In California she has worked on the Coso,
Salton Sea, East Mesa, Heber, Brawley, Wendell-Amedee, Mt. Lassen and Medicine Lake resources. She has
worked on geothermal projects overseas in Indonesia, the Philippines and Central America. For a number of
years, Ms. Petty assisted the Department of Energy in performing policy studies for geothermal energy
research including economic modeling of geothermal pricing and the impact of technology improvement on the
cost of geothermal power. She performed a signature study still in use today of the potential cost of
geothermal power supply from projects across the western U.S.
Education
BA Geology Princeton University, 1973MS Groundwater Hydrology, University of Hawaii, 1980Course work in
environmental management, technical writing, well drilling, management, hydraulic fracturing, hazardous waste
management, water law, federal leasingLanguages: German, Spanish, some Indonesian
Employment History
2003-Present Black Mountain Technology, Independent Consultant
• Evaluate economics of geothermal electrical generation and direct use projects
• Optimize power plant and gathering system equipment to better match changing resource conditions and
improve power output and efficiency
• Evaluate reservoir and well test data to determine reservoir size, value and best use of resource
• Evaluate injection strategy and improve injection efficiency
• Manage research to improve well field and plant economics
1999-2003 Coso Operating Company LLC, Resource Engineering Manager
• Evaluated economics of resource related projects for major alternative energy company
• Developed plant and wellfield optimization projects yielding increased power output and plant efficiency
• Managed reservoir modeling projects, developed plant, wellfield and reservoir model interface
• Managed injection strategy including tracer testing, injection augmentation and low rate, distributed
injection
• Evaluated new geothermal energy development projects and evaluated economics
• Managed over $12,000,000 in capital improvement projects at major geothermal power developments
1996-1999 Caithness Resources LLC, Senior Reservoir Engineer
• Evaluated geothermal project economics, assisted in contract negotiations, project acquisition and sales
and project financing
• Reservoir evaluation - including well testing and analysis, production data analysis, and financial and
reservoir modeling
• Reservoir management of resources in Indonesia, California and Nevada
• Hydrologic investigation of water supply projects
• Oversaw reservoir engineering operations including management of reservoir engineers and field staff,
interface with drilling, geology and power plant personnel in exploration, development and long term
management of geothermal power generation projects
1985-1996 Black Mountain Technology, Independent consultant
• Geothermal reservoir engineering and well testing including both surface and downhole instrumentation,
field supervision, resource evaluation and instruction in geothermal reservoir engineering techniques
• Projects include assisting clients in developing all aspects of new projects for electric energy production,
from reservoir evaluation, project economics, project development and financing and power contract sales
negotiations.
• Development of reservoir models, economic models, supply curves and impact of technology
improvement on the cost of power from geothermal energy.
1981-1985 Well Production Testing, Inc., Carlsbad, CA., Secretary/Treasurer- Reservoir Engineering
Manager
• Geothermal reservoir evaluations and well test analysis in California, Nevada, Indonesia, Mexico and
Utah,
• Modeling of the cost of geothermal power for hot dry rock and geopressured geothermal as well as
hydrothermal resources.
• Development and evaluation of very high temperature downhole instrumentation.Past and current clients
include US-DOE, Anadarko, Sandia National Laboratory, Harding and Lawson, Inc., Amoco, Caithness Power,
Inc., City of Mammoth Lakes, PNOC, Bechtel, Inc., Pacific Energy, Inc., Republic Geothermal, Inc., Utah
Municipal Power Agency
1979-1981 EG&G, Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, Idaho - Senior Scientist
• Provided management and planning of geothermal well testing at the Raft River Geothermal Project.
• Converted hydrologic models to use for geothermal reservoir modeling
• Collected and analyzed well test data.
• Wrote procedures for test operations.
• Provided geothermal technical assistance throughout Western U.S.
1976-1979 Research Assistant, University of Hawaii
• Master's thesis research on the injection of treated sewage effluent into island aquifers.
• Numerical modeling of clogging of wastewater injection wells.
1975-1979 Consultant-Groundwater hydrology, Easton, Maryland and Pacific Islands
Enewetak Atoll, Guam, Kwajalein, Palau and Ponape and the Hawaiian Islands.
1974-1975 Lead Project Geologist, Delaware Geological Survey, Newark Delaware
• Supervised drilling over 50 stratigraphic holes for study of recharge to public supply aquifer.
• Interacted with state environmental authorities in monitoring contamination of groundwater from landfills
and illegal waste disposal sites.
• Answered public queries on groundwater and geologic hazards.
1973-1974 Geologist, Environmental Concern, Inc., St. Michaels, Maryland
• Provided geologic input for restoration of marshes in damaged wetlands areas.
• Performed geologic, chemical and well tests and analyzed data.
Professional Activities
Geothermal Resources Council, Best Speaker Award, 1981, 1999Society of Petroleum Engineers. Treasurer,
1984, President, 1985, San Diego Section.
Publications
G. R. Petty and Petty, S., "The Site of the Battle of Malden: A Study Using Geological Methods,"
Spaeculum: The Journal of the Medieval Historical Society, September, 1976.
S. Petty, "A Mathematical Model of Clogging in Wastewater Injection Wells: Masters Thesis, University of
Hawaii, 1979.
S. Petty and F. L. Peterson, A Study of Problems of Hawaiian Waste Injection Wells, University of Hawaii,
Water Resources Research Center, 1979.
D. Goldman, and Petty, S., "Testing and Analysis of Low Temperature Geothermal Reservoirs," National
Conference on Renewable Energy Technologies, presented December, 1979, Honolulu, Hawaii.
S. Petty, Results of Pump/injection Testing, RRGP-5 to RRGI-6, June, 1979, INEL Internal Technical Report,
October, 1980.
S. Petty, "Collection and Analysis of Reservoir Data from Testing and Operation of the Raft River 5MW
Power Plant", Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University,
1980.
S. Petty and Spencer, S. G., "Injection in Basin and Range Type Reservoirs, the Raft River Experience,"
Geothermal Resources Council, Vol. 5, pp807-810, 1981.
S. Petty, "Effect of scaling on Downhole Pressure Transient Data," Ninth Workshop on Geothermal
Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, 1983.
S. Petty and Adams, R. A., "First Phase Testing at the Coso Hot Springs KGRA," GRC Vol. 8, 1984.
C. W. Morris, Campbell, D. A. and Petty, S., "Analysis of Wells in Naturally Fractured Formations with Rate
Sensitive Flow," Proceedings of the SPE, Paper 14169, 1985.
S. Petty, Entingh, D., and Livesay, B.J., Impact of R&D on Cost of Geothermal Power: Documentation of
Model Version 2.09," Contractor Report Sand87-7018, Sandia National Laboratory, February, 1988..
S. Petty, Livesay, B.J., and Long, W.P., "Supply of Geothermal Power from Hydrothermal Sources: A Study
of the Cost of Power for Future Development", Contractor Report Sandia National Laboratory, 1991
S. Petty, "Evaluation of Small Diameter Boreholes for Reservoir Information", Seventeenth Annual Stanford
Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Workshop, Jan., 1992.
D. Entingh and Petty, S., "Effects of Slimholes on Hydrothermal Exploration Costs", Transactions of the
Geothermal Resources Council, Vol. 20, 1992.
Allis, R. and Moore, J., 2000, Evolution of volcano-hosted vapor-dominated geothermal systems: GRC
Transactions, v. 24, p. 211-216. Allis, R., Moore, J., McCulloch, J., Petty, S., and DeRocher, T., 2000, Karaha-
Telaga Bodas, Indonesia: a partially vapor-dominated geothermal system: GRC Transactions, v. 24, p. 217-
222.
Moore, J., Lutz, S., Renner, J., McCulloch, J., and Petty, S., 2000, Evolution of a volcanic-hosted vapor-
dominated system: petrologic and geochemical data from corehole T-8, Karaha-Telaga Bodas, Indonesia:
GRC Transactions, v. 24, p. 259-263.
Susan Petty and John Gastineau Life Cycle Modeling of Wellbore Cement Systems Used for Enhanced
Geothermal System Development, 28th Annual Stanford Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering,
Jan., 2003
Judith Sheridan, Katie Kovac, Peter Rose, Colleen Barton, Jess McCulloch, Brian Berard, Joseph Moore,
Susan Petty, Paul Spielman, In Situ Stress, Fracture and Fluid Flow Analysis - East Flank of the Coso
Geothermal Field, 28th Annual Stanford Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Jan., 2003
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