This paper integrates the hydrogen production and utilization strategies with an economic model of a PEM fuel cell power plant (FCPP). The model includes the operational cost, thermal recovery, power trade with the local grid, and hydrogen management strategies. The model is used to determine the optimal operational strategy, which yields the minimum operating cost. The optimal operational strategy is achieved through estimation of the following: hourly generated power, thermal power recovered from the FCPP, power trade with the local grid, and hydrogen production. An evolutionary programming-based technique is used to solve for the optimal operational strategy. The model is tested using different seasonal load demands. The results illustrate the impact of hydrogen management strategies on the operational cost of the FCPP when subjected to seasonal load variation. Results are encouraging and indicate viability of the proposed model. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.