Development of an alternative black-start plan for system restoration

Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita that hit the Louisiana gulf coast, the designated black-start generating unit in southern Louisiana suffered extensive damage. Studies were performed to identify alternate means of restoring the system in the event of a system-wide black out. One of the options considered was to utilize an existing black-start unit in Northern Louisiana to energize the existing 500 kV lines to Southern Louisiana in order to provide start-up power for the generating units in that region. This paper discusses critical issues related to generator, substation and transmission equipment that were considered while developing the black-start plan.