IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2018 - 101

Question

1992

Do you have a system restoration plan?

2016

84%

100%

Most used
"experience"

What is the basis for your system restoration plan?

Technical
analyses

Does your plan include actions of other companies?

50%

100% for
RC and TOP

Do you have a training program to support your restoration plan?

Fewer than 50%

100% for
RC and TOP

Do you provide annual system restoration training to your system operators?

About 50%

100%

Do you involve plant operators in your system restoration training?

About 40%

100% if identified in
the RC or TOP plan

Do you involve neighboring personnel in your system restoration training?

About 25%

100% if identified in
the RC or TOP plan

Do you use drills in your training?

About 60%

100%

Do you perform system restoration drills to test your restoration plan?

About 33%

100% for
RCs or TOPs

Do you use a system-specific simulator for your system restoration training/drills?

About 25%

100%

What is the average length of your system restoration drills?

About 4-8 h

About 8 h

figure 2. Changes in drills over the past 25 years.

Many in the industry did not wait for mandatory standards to develop detailed system restoration plans or system
restoration training for system operators: they began developing/testing restoration plans and devising/implementing
restoration training long before the nerC reliability standards became enforceable. These entities recognized that,
with the complexity of interconnected power systems, realtime operations are not linear, making it is essential that system
operators understand the principles associated with isolated
power systems and then apply those principles to a variety of
possible restoration scenarios.

Restoration Plans Circa 1992
in 1991, the ieee published the paper "Power system restoration issues," emphasizing the need to perform detailed
analytical studies to ensure a sound technical basis for restoration plans. in 1992, the ieee wgoT and the Psrwg
surveyed the industry to assess the state of system restoration
training provided to system operators. almost 100 entities
representing different-sized entities from various regions of
both the United states and Canada returned this survey (see
the column headed "1992" in figure 2). Most respondents
(84%) indicated that they did have a restoration plan; however,
"lessons learned through the experience" of system operators,
system engineers, and system managers provided the foundation for these plans rather than detailed technical studies.
Many respondents (about 60%) indicated that they revised
their plans based on lessons learned from system restoration
exercises or drills. while nerC had published its first version
of the guidance document ("electric system restoration refjuly/august 2018

erence Document") listing several technical issues to address
in system restoration plans, only 67% of the respondents with
restoration plans indicated they used the information in that
document as a basis for their restoration plan.
early restoration plans focused primarily on the actions
of the entity's own system operators. while approximately
25% of the plans included some actions of system operators
in other companies, only about 40% included the actions of
personnel such as plant operators in the same company. and,
although only 20% involved corporate communications, most
(76%) did include mobilization plans.
early restoration training programs used a variety of training methods, with almost half using some self-study as well
as lectures led by system operators. approximately 25%
used a company-specific simulator, and fewer than 10% used
a generic simulator. a little over 30% incorporated drills into
the training (figure 3 shows uses of drill evaluations). while

Tools

Plan

Evaluate
Processes

Staff
Training

figure 3. Drill evaluations identify needed changes.
ieee power & energy magazine

101
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2018
