Blackstart of small islanded renewables for Scottish islands

The process of returning the power post-blackout, Blackstart, can be achieved through the use of grid forming resources, such as generators, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and other systems which do not require grid power. Black start capabilities are a necessary part of supporting efforts to transition to renewable power generation, as these capabilities help increase resilience in renewable dominated grid networks. This is also important in remote areas like Scottish islands which are not connected to the national grid. In many cases, they use renewables as a primary source of electricity, while still having a heavy reliance on fossil fuels for heating and transport. Hydrogen has been a promising alternative fuel option, which can be obtained from renewable sources such as wind powered electrolysers. However, wind powering electrolysers is a unique challenge, as wind power fluctuates while electrolysers are designed for constant power sources. As a result, it is beneficial to have a system in more remote areas with black start capabilities to enable complete restart if required. This paper explores the energisation process for a small scale isolated wind farm connected to an electrolyser, using a turbine with grid forming control (GFM) to perform Blackstart.