Black Start Capability Assessment in Power System Restoration

Black start (BS) capability assessment is important for system planners to prepare the power system restoration (PSR) plan. To achieve a faster restoration process, installing new BS generators can be beneficial in accelerating system restoration. While additional BS capability does not automatically benefit the restoration process, power systems have to update the PSR plan and quantify the benefit based on appropriate criteria. In this paper, a decision support tool, developed in an EPRI project, using Generic Restoration Milestones (GRMs)-based strategy is utilized to provide a quantitative way for assessing the optimal installation location and amount of BS capability. Based on the proposed criteria, the benefit from additional BS capability is quantified in terms of system restoration time. The IEEE Reliability Test System (RTS) 24-bus test system is used for validation of the proposed strategy, using the System Restoration Navigator (SRN) restoration tool. It is shown that power systems can benefit from new BS generators to reduce the restoration time. However, there is a threshold beyond which system restoration time cannot be further reduced from additional BS capability. Economic considerations should be taken into account when assessing additional BS capabilities.