Power System Restoration With Renewable Participation

Power system restoration requires initial power sources to restart generators, energizing transmissions, and pick up critical loads. Sufficient initial power capacity is critical for restoration success and reducing outage duration. Due to the reliability requirement and high standby costs, black-start resources are scarce and expensive in areas where hydro power is not available. Variable renewable energy (VRE), whose fast-ramping capability and economical standby costs are suitable for black-start, is traditionally excluded from participation in system restoration because its uncertainty and variability could cause severe disturbance to the system that is already fragile during restoration. Recently, VRE is becoming a potential participant in system restoration as auxiliary black-start resources. This work will explore the potential benefits of renewable energy in restoration and potential ways for VRE to participate in system restoration. We propose two dispatch models for wind participation. The uncertainty of wind generation is handled by probabilistic constraints to guarantee a feasible restoration plan with a high probability. We perform computational experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed models and benefits of renewable participation in restoration with the two approaches.