Fuel cells offer consumers and cooperatives the promise of on-site power generation

With an innovative spirit, Indiana embraced electric cooperatives more than 65 years ago. Consumer-owned co-ops set the poles and strung the lines along the backroads and fields and into the hills and hollows to bring rural Hoosiers the brilliance of light and the convenience of electricity.

Before electric co-ops, electricity was a rare commodity across rural America. Small generators, fueled by kerosene or gasoline, were the only sources of power for the majority of the nation's farmers and rural residents whose pleas for affordable central-station electricity were ignored by the existing electric companies of the day.

Today, electric co-ops continue that innovative pioneering spirit: testing the latest technology to bring electricity to consumers' homes and businesses.

Ironically, some of the latest technology — fuel cells — echoes the more distant past. Fuel cells promise on-site power generation that doesn't use the poles and power lines that made rural America prosper. In the coming years, rapidly evolving fuel cell technology is expected to revolutionize the electric utility industry. In fact, fuel cells are expected to do to poles and power lines some day what poles and power lines did to windmills and those cumbersome kerosene "light and power plants" at the heyday of rural electrification.

The ‘descent’ of electricity

Recognizing the technology's potential for powering homes and businesses, the nation's electric co-ops have established joint ventures with fuel cell manufacturers to advance the use of fuel cells.

At the 2001 Farm Progress Show near Lafayette last September, Indiana's electric co-ops had a small fuel cell as part of its exhibition. At 250 watts, the display unit generated more conversation than electricity. Still, Ken Ritchey, general manager at the host electric utility, Tipmont REMC, said it was received well by visitors at the tent who asked a lot of questions.

Tipmont REMC is one of a handful of co-ops around Indiana to show initial interest in fuel cell technology. But, Ritchey said, practical application is still down the road aways.

How far, he said, is anybody's guess. He sees spot application of fuel cells coming first. Within the next few years, a new home or business built in a remote location without electric service could be equipped with a fuel cell instead of having the cooperative extend service via poles and lines.

As the technology progresses over the next several decades, fuel cells will be used for stand-by power and then for specific applications for consumers needing a higher level of service and control than regular consumers. And eventually …?

"I think eventually," Ritchey said, "it'll make the wires business obsolete."

Several electric co-ops around the nation tested an early model of a fuel cell just over a year ago and are now awaiting the arrival of a beta unit, or a second generation model, to test.

While fuel cells were first conceptualized in the 1800s, the technology had only been applied in the exploration of space. Until now. Researchers today are experimenting with fuel cells to
power everything from a wristwatch to vehicles to an entire home or business.

While there are a number of fuel cell technologies in use or under development, the most practical for homes and small businesses is the Proton Exchange Membrane system.

A PEM fuel cell silently produces electricity through an electrochemical reaction in which hydrogen and oxygen are combined to generate electricity. The hydrogen used in the process is derived from fuels such as natural gas or propane; the oxygen is drawn from the air.

About the size of a refrigerator, a PEM fuel cell could not only provide the electrical needs of a home, but its principal byproducts, heat and hot water, could also supply the hot water and some space heat.

You won't find a fuel cell at your local hardware store quite yet, however. H Power Corporation, a New Jersey-based fuel cell manufacturer, for example, doesn't expect to have commercial units available until the end of this year.

Those units are expected to produce up to five kilowatts on a continuous basis, enough to power a typical home. A smaller fuel cell powered by bottled hydrogen is expected to be available commercially sooner.

In 1998, H Power provided the first traffic signs powered by fuel cells to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. H Power fuel cells are already being used commercially in buses and radios. Now, H Power is partnering with electric cooperatives to fine-tune its fuel cells.

The partnership is possible through Energy Co-Opportunity, or ECO for short, an energy services cooperative created by the nation's electric co-ops to stay on the forefront of this type of technology. ECO has partnered with H Power to produce a fuel cell designed specifically for electric co-op consumers.

Another fuel cell test is being conducted by nine participants, mostly electric cooperatives, through the Cooperative Research Network. CRN is a division of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The project is being supported by the Electric Power Research Institute, a center for energy and environmental research in Palo Alto, Calif.; the U.S. Department of Energy; and the U.S. Army.

Those models are powered by natural gas, but future units could utilize fuels such as propane or even ethanol.

"We're in the typical stage for advanced high-technology equipment," said Ed Torrero, senior program manager for CRN. "Once they are put in the field, there are still a lot of changes and improvements that need to be made."

Homeowners need to flip a switch and walk away from a fuel cell, confident that they have a reliable form of electricity, said Bob Gibson, director of marketing communications with ECO. "It's got to be at that level. It's not there yet. Everybody knows what they have to do, but they just have to keep tinkering."

Helping with that tinkering process, Consolidated Electric Cooperative, which serves more than 13,600 homes and businesses in eight counties of northcentral Ohio, was one of eight co-ops to test the first generation, or alpha, fuel cells, which were powered with natural gas.

Consolidated Electric, in a partnership with Buckeye Power, Ohio's power generation and transmission co-op, first put its fuel cell through a series of daily tests, powering a "ghost" load. Eventually, the fuel cell was used to power an office heating system, which used from 5,000 to 6,000 watts to operate.

Tests like these give H Power the knowledge it needs to advance the development of fuel cells, Gibson said. During field tests, manufacturers are finding the fuel processing area to hold the most technical glitches, said Dan Rastler, with EPRI.

The technical glitches aside, fuel cells are also expensive. Gibson estimates a commercial unit would cost approximately $50,000. Like most technology, the price is expected to drop as more units are produced. Expense, however, will continue to be an issue for several years.

"It's going to take several years for it to deliver power as cheap as buying power off the grid," he said.

A role to play

But electric cooperatives envision various roles for fuel cells, from providing supplemental power to serving as the primary power source in remote areas.

A highly efficient power supply, fuel cells could — as Tipmont's Ritchey noted — revolutionize the way consumers receive electricity.

Imagine 50 years from now: the rural roadsides devoid of the poles and power lines that have been a part of the landscape for the lifetime of almost everyone living today. Imagine what it would be like to hear weather forecasts calling for ice and high winds without worrying if that old cedar tree out back is going to take out your electric service.

"The technologies that are just breaking through are the kinds of things we're going to see more and more of in the future. They're going to be part of the mainstream in the way energy is delivered and used across the country," Gibson said.

Fuel cells don't release emissions and are uniquely suited for providing power for remote locations, according to ECO.

In the near future, businesses could use fuel cells for emergency use or to power essential equipment during an outage. And electric co-ops could use fuel cells as an alternative to building expensive line extensions or to manage peak loads in more populated areas.

Fuel cells are "under intense technical development and innovation," said Rastler. "We're bullish on the long-term prospects of fuel cell technology."
"There is a great potential for saving money for both co-ops and their consumers," Gibson said. "In rural areas, in particular, because of the cost of building and maintaining lines to serve relatively modest loads."

An extension from the main electrical grid could cost from $10,000 to $15,000 per mile, Torrero said. "So it doesn't take too many miles before an alternative such as a residential fuel cell becomes economical."

Ritchey also noted that fuel cell technology and its potential role in the future are already changing the way many co-ops operate today. "I think it is probably causing every co-op to think seriously, if they haven't already, about the propane business," he said. "If you want to be in the electric business and there are no wires, then you better have access to fuel, or you won't be in the electric business."

Electric cooperatives are poised to become leaders in providing innovative power solutions. The national alliance of Touchstone Energy co-ops has made innovation one its four principles. The goal of consumer-owned co-ops is to get electricity to consumers as inexpensively as possible. They do that with the current technology today and will be doing it with the new technology tomorrow.

By Louann Dart and Richard Biever. Louann Dart is the former editor of South Dakota's electric cooperative statewide publication and is now a free-lance writer living in Elgin, N.D. Richard G. Biever is senior editor of Electric Consumer.