Patent ID: 8501359

Claim:
A fuel cell power plant comprising: a fuel cell stack comprising an anode and a cathode, which generates power according to a reaction of a fuel gas supplied to the anode and an oxidant gas supplied to the cathode; a fuel gas supply device which supplies the fuel gas to the anode; an oxidant gas supply device which supplies a dry oxidant gas to the cathode; a fuel gas purge device which supplies a dry oxidant gas to the anode; and a programmable controller programmed to: control the fuel gas supply device to stop supplying the fuel gas to the anode in response to an operation stop command from outside; control the oxidant gas supply device to supply the dry oxidant gas to the cathode; control the fuel gas purge device to supply the dry oxidant gas to the anode when a residual fuel gas amount in the anode has decreased to a predetermined amount; and control the fuel gas purge device to stop supplying the dry oxidant gas to the anode when the residual fuel gas in the anode has been replaced with the dry oxidant gas, further comprising a first electrical load and a second electrical load made of an electric wire which has a lower power consumption rate than the first electrical load, wherein the controller is further programmed to connect the first electrical load to the fuel cell stack after the fuel gas supply device has stopped supplying the fuel gas to the anode, then disconnect the first electrical load from the fuel cell stack, and then connect the second electrical load prior to supplying the dry oxidant gas to the anode.