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I was recently told by an electrical engineering lecturer that the black start plan here in Ireland is to use the DC interconnectors with the UK to provide startup power to a synchronous generator.

by beAbU3 hours ago|

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With the new wexford-wales interconnect that went live last month, and another one planned from Cork (?) to France things might be even easier in the near future I reckon.

by ajmurmann3 hours ago|

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Did he mention the UK's plan in case they have a full blackout?

by d1sxeyes32 minutes ago|

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The UK has pumped storage facilities that we can use to black start the national grid.

by pjc503 hours ago|

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https://www.nationalgrid.com/sites/default/files/documents/H... (2017, probably current)

by InsomniacL1 hours ago|

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"it is prudent that the cost of maintaining Black Start Capability should demonstrate value to the end consumer"

That sounds like someone explaining why the solution is so bad, before describing what the solution is.

by htrp49 minutes ago|

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Connect with Ireland

by tzs2 hours ago|

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Isn't that backwards? When grids interconnect via DC wouldn't there no longer be a need for the grids to synchronize frequency?

by maxerickson1 hours ago|

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With the DC interconnect, your DC to AC conversion equipment would need the capability to provide synchronized power to the generator you are trying to start. With the synchronized grid tie, your are pulling the generator into the running grid.

by oliwarner3 hours ago|

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Does the source of "truth" matter? You still have to turn everything off, bring your generators up, each in sync and then allow load back on slowly.

The UK keeping its own time just makes things easier for it IMO.

by wongarsu3 hours ago|

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A synchronous interconnect provides not just a source of truth but also stabilizes your grid frequency. If you have an isolated grid you have to match generation to demand to keep the grid frequency stable. If you have a 1GW interconnect that means you can mismatch generation and demand by up to a gigawatt and still be fine. I imagine that makes for a much faster startup procedure

by k7sune2 hours ago|

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If the isolated grids all each synced to a source of truth first (GPS?), would it be possible for them to immediately connect afterwards?

by wongarsu2 hours ago|

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You can connect two running grids. Earlier this year the Baltic countries disconnected from the Russian grid, and synchronized and then connected to the European grid.

I imagine you can get close enough by syncing to a shared time source like GPS or the DCF77 signal, as long as you communicate how the phase is supposed to match up to the time source. Or at least you could get close enough that you can then quickly sync the islands the traditional way.

The question is if it's worth the effort and risk. Cold starting a power grid is a once in a lifetime event (at least in Europe, I imagine some grids are less stable) and Spain seems to plan to have everything back up again in 10 hours. Maybe if the entire European grid went down we would attempt something like that by having each country start up on their own, then synchronize and reconnect the European grid over the following week.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_states_synchronization_...