Fuel cells are getting a further boost as industry and electric utilities become more taken with the concept of distributed power (DP). In that approach, traditional big, central electricity-generation stations and complex transmission grids get supplemented by small-scale electricity generation - for instance, by fuel cells - at or near the point of use. DP entails low capital costs per installation and much less need for transmission and distribution infrastructure. DP offers the ability to reliably provide the high-quality electricity that computers and other digital devices require. To-day's fuel cells generate electricity from reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, so the supplying of hydrogen to the cell was a central theme of the recent Global Energy Technology Conference in New York. Numerous hydrogen-supply strategies are available. While the DP concept mainly visualizes distributed production in stationary or portable fuel cells (or other devices), as in commercial buildings, vehicle propulsion offers the largest potential market. With fuel cells for vehicle propulsion drawing so much attention, so the Chief Financial Officer de Scheemakers of Shell Hydrogen B.V. (Amsterdam) predicts that the first established fuel-cell applications will be in buses and other vehicle fleets and similar niche markets. At the conference mentioned above, Avista Labs exhibited a 'generator' employing cartridge-type proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) cells. Individual cartridges can be replaced while the generator is operating. Other developments were presented by Fuel Cell Energy, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.), Siemens Westinghouse (Pittsburgh), Southern California Edison, and United Technologies Corp's (Hartford, Conn.).