Included are: a basic operation plan creating section 2 configured to create a basic operation plan based on durable years (e.g., 10 years) and a durable operating time (e.g., 40000 hours) of a fuel cell 1, such that the fuel cell 1 is operated within the range of at least one of a first allowable operating time (e.g., 11 hours) per predetermined unit period (e.g., per day) and the number of durable start-ups (e.g., 4000 times) per predetermined unit period; a special operation plan creating section 3 configured to create a special operation plan such that the fuel cell 1 is operated within the range of at least one of a second allowable operating time (e.g., 20 hours) per predetermined unit period (e.g., per day) and a second allowable number of start-ups per predetermined unit period, the second allowable operating time being longer than the first allowable operating time, the second allowable number of start-ups being greater than the first allowable number of start-ups; an operation plan selecting section 4 configured to select one of the basic operation plan and the special operation plan; and a fuel cell operating section 5 configured to operate the fuel cell 1 based on the operation plan selected by the operation plan selecting section 4.