LADWP FUEL CELL DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is currently one of the most active power utility companies in researching fuel cell technology. Fuel cells offer many benefits and are now used as an alternative to traditional internal combustion engines in power generation. In continuing it's role as the leader in fuel cell research, LADWP has installed a pre-commercial molten carbonate fuel cell on August 2001 at its headquarter, the John Ferraro Building (JFB). The goal of this project is to learn more about the actual behavior of the fuel cell running under real world conditions. The fuel cell ran smoothly through the first year of operation with very high efficiency, but with some minor setbacks. The JFB fuel cell project is funded by the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power with partial grant funding from the Department of Defense's Climate Change Fuel Cell Buydown Program. The technical evaluation and the benefit-cost evaluation of the JFB fuel cell are both examined in this report