The paper deals with the set-up and preliminary test-planning of an innovative mini cogeneration plant, in which exhaust gases coming from a 45 kWe rated turbogenerator directly feed an absorption chiller / heater with a 170 kWth chilling and a 160 kWth heating capability. Electric power is partly used on site to satisfy the plant auxiliary systems power demands and partly vectorised to the main building of the Engineering Faculty (15 km from the plant site) through the main electric grid. Thermal power is exploited locally for any season air conditioning of laboratory rooms. The paper describes the plant layout and the technical solutions adopted for installation and diagnostic purposes. This plant has been conceived even as a test-bed for Remote Monitoring (RM) and Plant Condition Monitoring (PCM) techniques development and testing. To this purpose dedicated diagnostics have been set up and mathematical models of all the main components are being developed to perform the identification of their operational parameters (e.g. efficiencies) on the basis of the acquired parameters. These are aimed at obtaining both a correct management of the plant and an early diagnosis of malfunctions to achieve the ability of following an on-condition maintenance philosophy to reduce maintenance costs and outage periods.