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BLACK START NETWORK / 30 / NOVEMBER 2019 D isruption to travel, no access to mon- ey, problems with telecommunica- tions 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 Chan - dler, project lead for the Distrib- uted 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 restor - ing full power across the whole country could take up to a week in a "Black Start" scenario. Recent blackout incidents in other countries have served as a timely reminder that power cut prevention and protection remains a key priority. In June, a massive blackout le† almost 50 million people without elec - tricity for a day in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay follow- ing what the Argentine presi- dent, Mauricio Macri called an "unpr ecedented" failure in the countries' power grid. So what is Black Start? Black Start is the process of restoring power to consumers and restart - ing the whole of the electricity system, in the event of a black- out. At National Grid ESO, it is envisaged that its Distributed ReStart project will demonstrate a world first – coordinating a bottom-up approach from distri- bution networks to transmission level to provide an effective and cost-efficient Black Start service. As Chandler explains, Black Start is currently a transmission- National Grid ESO is aiming for a world first – coordinating multipe distributed energy resources (DERs) to provide a safe Black Start service in its Distributed ReStart project. Alec Peachey spoke to project lead Peter Chandler. led approach to starting large generators and energising a skeleton transmission network. However, the GB electricity system is undergoing a revolu - tion driven by decarbonisation and decentralisation, and Black Start services need to evolve ac- cordingly, he notes. Chandler says: "Current Black Start is all about restoration of electricity supplies when we've had a blackout. Historically, the way we would restore supplies following a national blackout event is by starting big fossil- fuelled power stations using their own backup generators. Getting power back "Today this would mean en- ergising the transmission system down to the distribution level and then restoring domestic supplies. These power stations are kept in a state of readiness and can be in- structed to start quickly, but due to decarbonisation and decentral- isation of the electricity system a lot of these large, traditional power stations are closing down. The costs of Black Start services are rising as a result and these are being paid for by consumers. "Our project is looking at ways of doing Black Start differ- ently from traditional methods, by looking at utilising Distrib- uted Energy Resources [or small power stations connected at dis- tribution level]. Effectively we're turning the whole methodology on its head. It's a whole new way of doing it." Head start in renewables Generation sources likely to be included in the project include: • natural gas turbines; • biomass generators; • embedded hydro-power stations; • wind turbines; and • solar panels. The Distributed ReStart project, funded by Ofgem's Electricity Network Innovation Competi - tion to the tune of £10.3m, aims to recommend technical, organisational and commer- cial solutions to create market ac cess for distributed energy resources (DERs) to participate in Black Start services, in ways that would also reduce CO2 emissions, create competition Peter Chandler: proceeding to Black Start trials in 2020