4 ms·

I don't see why you can't test it: take one of these contracted sources, disconnect it from the grid, and verify it can start on its own. What am I missing?

• bombcar 4y ago
  That's testing one source; and you CAN do that but you may find that there are things you didn't realize because the grid was actually UP. For example, the entire station may be disconnected from the grid, but somewhere in the system is a Siemens device that for whatever ungodly reason needs to access the internet, which works when the grid as a whole is operational but fails when it can't get cell service. And even if those stations work correctly, you still haven't verified that the actual plan is operational because you haven't actually done the black start; perhaps the grid divisions are incorrect and the first load you try to apply will brown out the start source.
  • jefftk 4y ago
    I agree there are other things that can go wrong, but the "two contracted gas turbine black start sources didn't work" problem does still seem like something that probably could have been avoided with regular testing?
    • bombcar 4y ago
      Yeah, we certainly should be doing as much as we can, but it seems time and time again we keep finding things to fix only when it's actually forced to test. It's the same reason that datacenters don't just run the generators every month, but actually switch over to generator power and disconnect from the grid to verify it works (and if it doesn't, hopefully the batteries last long enough to get back to the grid!).
      • slv77 4y ago
        And then during an actual outage you find out that generator conks out 15 minutes after startup because the fuel filters are clogged. Between tests enough fuel would have leaked through the clogged filters to create a 15 minute revisor but during an actual outage the filters can’t keep up.
• badcppdev 4y ago
  You're missing the bit where you use the black start source to start the other sources.