Power
Engineering
November
2005
Steve
Blankenship, Associate Editor
A
250 kW Fuel Cell power plant has been chosen to improve power availability
at a U.S. training center, where it will help meet security requirements
and cope with fluctuating power needs that can triple from one season
to the next. FuelCell Energy (FCE)’s first DFC300MA power plant
has been sold for use at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center
(MCAGCC) at Twentynine Palms, California, which provides year-round
instruction to ensure continued readiness of trainees from all branches
of the U.S. armed forces. FCE expects to ship the unit to California
by July 2006.
More
than 50,000 individuals rotate through the MCAGCC facility each year
for training sessions lasting one to two months. The base also supports
the day-to-day living needs of more than 10,000 personnel and family
members stationed there. The FuelCell Energy DFC power plant will
complement the distributed generation portfolio for the base’s
power requirements. The DFC300MA power plant will supply on-site baseload
power with the added benefit of high-efficiency electric power generation
and ultra-clean emissions.
Situated 45 miles north of Palm Springs, MCAGCC occupies a region
of the Mojave Desert where summer temperatures can reach 120 F. With
seasonal cooling requirements for trainee and resident populations,
electricity demand hits 15 to 20 MW during the summer compared to
as low as six MW during winter months. Gary Morrissett, energy manager
of MCAGCC, says the Fuel Cell power plant will complement an array
of on-site generation and energy efficiency measures installed to
increase energy security and manage power use at the base. “It’s
designed to run parallel to the local electric network, thereby providing
the base with grid support while helping reduce area demand on the
power infrastructure,” said Morrissett.
MCAGCC
will have the option to add additional Fuel Cells at a later date
to upgrade its DFC power plant generating capacity to one MW. Herb
Nock, senior vice president of marketing and sales of FCE, noted that
this is the first DFC power plant sale by FuelCell Energy distributor
LOGANEnergy®, which will serve as prime contractor and manage the MCAGCC
project. The DFC300MA power plant is being purchased for the base
by the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, a division of
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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