Black Start Exercise – Experience & Learning over past 7 years in Western Region, India

Resilience of the electricity grid, irrespective of its size, depends on the availability of a well-tested restoration procedure
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. The Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC)
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mandates periodic testing and validation of the grid recovery procedures at least twice a year. Black start drills are done to test & learn the behaviour of the power system elements under restorative state. These drills provide an opportunity for the system operators & field engineers to experience the challenges associated with a blackout scenario where-in the capabilities and response of each equipment as well as the operators are tested & validated. These drills involve physical isolation of a small part of the grid with a gas/hydro generator followed by creation of a blackout and restoration of that isolated part through bottom up approach. In India, several hydro and gas based generators are equipped with black start capability. This paper shares the experience & learning from the black start drills conducted under varying scenarios in Western Regional (WR) Grid of India over past 7 years (2011-2018). The learnings have been summarized from a system operator's perspective with an objective to ensure fastest grid recovery after blackouts & disturbances.