Grid restoration planning after a total blackout

Restoration of a power system after a total black out poses some serious challenge for power system operators. The main reason is the necessity of black start units. Due to economic reasons, it is not feasible to provide black star capability for all power stations. The location and capacity of black start units play an important role in deciding the restoration strategy after a black out. The parallel building up and synchronization of electrical islands is the widely accepted practice for bulk grid restoration. In case of a total blackout, finding an amicable solution to important restoration tasks like the number of independent islands to be formed, configuration and loading of the islands, reserve capacities, and selection of restoration path requires assessment of blackstart capability of plants and location of the blackstart unit. This paper proposes a restoration algorithm that can be used on the event of a total blackout and application of the proposed algorithm to the case study of North Kerala grid.