Black Start is the procedure used to restore power in the highly unlikely event of a total or partial shutdown of the National Electricity Transmission System. Traditionally, large power stations would have been used to restore the system. However, as the UK moves to cleaner, greener energy generation, the changes in generation mean that new options must be developed.
Industry partners awarded £10m for ‘Black Start’ project Read More »
Disruption to travel, no access to money, problems with telecommunications and petrol pumps rendered out of service – these are just some of the issues that would be faced by the public in the event of a blackout. “Catastrophic” is the word used by Peter Chandler (pictured below), project lead for the Distributed ReStart project at National Grid ESO, to describe the extent of the problems caused in this situation. Nor would the effects be over in a hurry, with Chandler indicating that restoring full power across the whole country could take up to a week in a “Black Start” scenario.
Getting the power back on Read More »
The NIC-funded Distributed ReStart project aims to provide a world first by coordinating distributed energy resources (DER) to provide a safe and stable Black Start service in the event of system-wide blackout.
Distributed ReStart project: live trials Read More »
In the unlikely event of a total or partial shutdown of the electricity transmission networks, system operators use Black Start services to re-energise the grid and restore power to consumers as quickly as possible. “Black Start” has traditionally relied on the use of designated power stations with self-starting capability to re-energise sections of the network, then incrementally connect loads and additional generators to create “power islands”. These “islands” are connected together to restore supply to consumers.
An alternative route to Black Start Read More »
