An isothermal 2-D transient model is developed for an anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell. The model takes into account the transient effects of both charge migration and species transport in PEN assembly. Due to the lack of transient experimental data, the transient model, under steady state operating conditions, is validated using experimental results from open literature. Numerical results show that the cell can obtain very quick transient current response when subjected to a step voltage change, followed by a slow current transient period due to species diffusion effects within porous electrodes. It is also found that the transient response of the cell current is sensitive to oxygen concentration change at cathode/channel interface, whereas the current response is slow when step change of hydrogen concentration is applied at anode/channel interface. The cell transient performance can be improved by increasing porosity or decreasing tortuosity of electrodes. (C) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved