Optimal blackstart

resource allocation for

power system
restoration of Bhutan
using DigSILENT
-Abhishek Pokhrel
-Sarda Chuwan
-Abiskar Chhetri
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

Background Aims

Problem
Outline Objectives
statement

Methodology

Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system

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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

Power system operating states

•During the normal operation of a power system, all system
parameters are within their respective limits.
•In normal state, a system can withstand potential contingencies
without equipment limits being violated or without loosing stability.
However, as it starts to violate some of the limits, the system either
enters into alert state or emergency state if corrective measures are
not taken.
•If the system is not stored even in emergency state, the system enters
into in-extremis state and then system disintegrates into islands.
•Equality constraints: Generation = Load
•Inequality constraints: Bus Voltages and equipment current within the
limits
Fig 1: Power system Operating states
Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system
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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

Blackout
• A blackout is the total loss of electric power supply in a region. Blackout originates from power
system disturbances resulting in loss of service to all the loads within an area[1]. However,
irrespective of the causes of the major disturbances it is very important to have plans and system
in phase to hand such problems in the power system without taking much time.
• Some of the major key requirements for power system restoration are black start capability,
capacity of islanded operation and stability after a sudden change in the load[2].
• Fortunately, majority of the power generation in Bhutan is from hydropower plant[3]. Unlike other
power plants hydropower plants have high black start capability making restoration easier.

Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system

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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

• In the event of a blackout (Partial or

Aim complete), quickly and reliably restore
Bhutan's power system.

Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system

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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

• This research expects to carry out a study of

Bhutan’s Power system and understand the
relationship between its loads and system
frequency.
Objective • For effective restoration in case of a
blackout, provide a generator startup
sequence and load pickup time for the
electrical load of Bhutan.
• Explore means to make the findings of this
research infallible.

Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system

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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

Problem statement
Black starts, if not properly studied
beforehand, can be a slow and unreliable. If
done without proper planning, can lead to
re-tripping of generators (another blackout).

Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system

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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 འ བྲུ ག ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ འ ཛ ི ན ་ ག ཙུ ག ་ ལ ག ་ སླ ོ བ ་ སྡ ེ ། །
འ ཇ ི ག ས ་ མ ེ ད ་ རྣ མ ་ རྒྱ ལ ་ བ ཟ ོ ་ ར ི ག ་ མ ཐ ོ ་ ར ི མ ་ སླ ོ བ ་
གྲྭ ། །
R O Y A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F B H U T A N
J I G M E N A M G Y E L E N G I N E E R I N G C O L L E G E

Figure 2: Methodology
Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system
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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT
 [1] T. S. Sidhu, D. A. Tziouvaras, A. P. Apostolov, C. H. Castro, S. R. Chano, S. H.
Horowitz and J. T. Uchiyama, "Protection issues during system restoration," IEEE transaction on
Power Delivery, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 47-56, 2005.
[2] Pradhan, P., Deki, T., Wangmo, P., Dorji, D., Phuntsho, D., & Dorji, C. (2015).
Simulation and optimization of blackstart restoration plan in Bhutan using DIgSILENT. 2015
2nd International Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering & Computational
Sciences (RAECS). https://doi.org/10.1109/raecs.2015.7453393
[3] H. Xu, "Electricity blackout and power security: survey and analysis," University of

References
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[5] H. Weber, M. Hladky, T. Haaze, S. Spreng and C. N. Moser, "High quality modelling
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Systems Control, 2002.
[6] S. Spreng, H. Weber and M. Hladky, "Investigation of the dynamic behaviour of hydro
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[7] G. Deb, "Ferranti effect in transmission line," International Journal of Electrical and
Computer Engineering (IJECE), vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 447-451, 2012.

Optimal blackstart resource allocation for power system

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restoration of Bhutan using DigSILENT