News

FCE and Caterpillar Announce Fuel Cell Installation

November 02, 2003 by Jeff Shepard

FuelCell Energy Inc. (FCE, Danbury, CT) and Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, IL) finalized a contract from the City of Westerville Electric Division to supply a 250kW Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plant designed to feed power at a substation into the local electric distribution system in Westerville, OH. The State of Ohio Third Frontier Project Award is the first by the state of Ohio, which is investing more than $100 million in a three-year initiative to expand fuel cell research and development, including increased fuel-cell-generating capacity.

"Through their steadfast support of this project, the state of Ohio is clearly demonstrating that using fuel cells and distributed generation to efficiently produce clean electric power fits in with the long-term environmental and economic needs of the citizens of Ohio," said Herbert Nock, senior vice president of marketing and sales of FuelCell Energy. "It is this type of public and private sector cooperation that is making fuel cell power plants available today to commercial, industrial and utility customers."

Caterpillar dealer Ohio Cat sold the power plant to the City of Westerville who, in partnership with American Municipal Power-Ohio, is managing the fuel cell generation project. Westerville, a suburb of Columbus, OH, serves approximately 14,000 electric consumers through its locally owned and controlled electric system. The fuel cell will be directly connected to the Westerville power grid. FuelCell Energy will manufacture the power plant, scheduled for installation in 2004.