Case Study of Austin Energy’s 200-kW Fuel Cell

Abstract

In the spring of 2001, Austin Energy decided to pursue a com-
mercial fuel cell demonstration project to determine the issues involved
with either a customer or the utility owning, installing, operating and
maintaining this technology. A significant component of this project in-
cluded understanding the issues associated with distributed generation
connected to the local utility grid and how this would impact both the
customer and the grid. An added bene fit would be to provide a fuel cell
education site that is accessible to other Austin Energy customers and
the general public.
The site selected for the project is the city-owned Rebekah Baines
Johnson Health Center, which houses the city health clinic. Because the
Health Center had existing redundant 1,000,000 Btu per hour boilers for
Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning, (HVAC) desiccant drying, and
building heat along with a domestic hot water heater, the site presented
an opportunity for using the waste heat generated by the fuel cell power
plant in a combined heat and power application.
Using a federal grant of $200,000 from the Climate Change Pro-
gram administered by the U. S. Department of Defense, Austin Energy
installed a 200-kW UTC Power Model PC25™C fuel cell. This fuel cell
was the first in Texas to feed electric power into the utility grid. Com-
mercial operation began July 2, 2002.
The issues to be worked through in many areas proved to be dif fi-
cult, but doable, and many lessons have been learned along the way. The
performance results have been impressive proving that this technology
is not only technically viable in commercial applications but reliable as
well.