Black Start Capability From PV Inverters – Real-Time Simulation and Validation of Control Model

With the growing interest in replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, grid operators need to look at the possibilities of renewables being ancillary service providers. Due to their quicker power up times and smaller power requirements to restart after a complete blackout. Photovoltaic power plants are looked on favorably to be black start units in modern grids. As testing of black start control strategies is not feasible in real scenarios and real time simulators are often used to validate new control strategies and train operators. In this work, a simple yet effective control strategy is implemented and validated through real time simulation. Demonstrated results indicate that the designed control method can be used to enable black start from photovoltaic power plants.