Fuel cell based distributed generation feeding electrical and thermal loads

The progressive deregulamentation of the electrical energy market, together with the incentive to use zero emission energy sources, can encourage, in the middle term, the diffusion of generation sites dispersed on the territory. The utilization of cogeneration in civil and industrial installation and the technological progress associated to small and medium size systems involve increasing requests of linking to the LV and MV distribution grid, which modifies itself from “passive” to “active”. Fuel Cell based electrical distributed sources, suitable to feed also thermal requirements, make the distribution utilities able to satisfy the customer requirements in terms of electrical and thermal loads, creating the opportunities to reconfigure the relation among producer, distributor and customer. The paper focuses on the performances of fuel cell sources and on their integration in the distribution networks, examining the benefits that fuel cell sources could determine on system potentialities in terms of technical and reliability aspects.