The Canoe Ridge Natural Gas Storage Project

Abstract

In 1999, the Pacific Gas and Electric Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) drilled a borehole to investigate the feasibility of developing a natural gas-storage facility in a structural dome formed in Columbia River basalts in the Columbia Basin of south-central Washington State. The proposed aquifer storage facility will be an unconventional one where natural gas will be initially injected (and later retrieved) in one or multiple pervious horizons (interflow zones) that are confined between deep (>700 meters) basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. This report summarizes the results of joint investigations on that feasibility study by GTN and the U.

New Progress of Study in Energy Storage Area of Volcanic Rocks

“…There were two energy storage projects focused on inetrflow basalt aquifers in the Columbia Basin, using UGS, CAES and UTES technologies, which launched by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and a number of energy companies in recent years [1,2,3,4,5,6]. These three technologies of energy storage play important roles in peak-shaving, supply interruptions, production storage and so on.…”

“…Representative basaltic flow consists of a permeable flow top, a dense-impermeable flow interior, and a flow bottom with variable thickness. Contact zone between two independent basalt flows is referred to as an interflow zone, as well as the primary aquifers in the region [1,2,3]. The location map of Columbia Basin and nearby natural gas supply lines are shown in Fig.…”