Overview and Prospects of Black Start

With the rapid development of power grid, black start has been an indispensable part of power grid construction, and the gradually mature microgrid technology will play an important role in solving power system problems. Otherwise, plug-in electric vehicle will become an important load in future power grid. The black start concept, research status, black start scheme development and its verification are stated in detail; distributed generation and microgrid are introduced; the strategy about taking microgrid as black start power sources is proposed; and key technical problems existing on the combination of black start, microgrid and plug-in electric vehicle are explored according to the microgrid control and operation characteristics. On the basis of summarizing black start and microgrid research development and achievements in the globe, this paper discusses prospects of black start and provides new views and suggestions for its further research.