State Grid Hebei Electric Power Company Limited
Recently, an “extreme challenge” for power grid security concluded successfully. As the 35 kV collector line of the Liuqing Wind Farm was energized and ran stably for over three hours, Hebei Power Grid’s first grid-forming wind farm station-level black start test succeeded. This marks a functional upgrade for wind farms – under grid fault and blackout scenarios, a wind farm can start autonomously and provide local support, becoming an important force for rapid grid restoration.
The so-called “black start” is a key technology for large power grid security. In simple terms, it refers to the grid’s ability, after a large-scale blackout caused by a fault, to re-establish voltage and restore supply using its own sources without relying on external grid power. It is often described as the “spark” for restarting the grid.
For a long time, conventional wind turbines have been “grid-following” devices, requiring voltage support from the external grid. Once the grid loses power, turbines shut down and can only wait for other sources such as hydropower and thermal power to “come to the rescue.” By the end of September 2026, wind and solar new energy installed capacity in the Hebei Southern Power Grid reached 59.23 million kilowatts, over 61% of the region’s total, making new energy the dominant source. With rapid growth of new energy in Hebei’s grid, tapping wind farms’ potential to restore nearby supply is strategically significant for enhancing grid response under extreme scenarios.
Grid-forming wind turbines, paired with energy storage, can autonomously establish voltage and frequency. Even in a complete blackout, they can self-start like an independent source and drive other equipment in the station to gradually resume operation.
Before the test, the State Grid Hebei Electric Power Research Institute’s technical team built a high-precision simulation model, simulated complex conditions, and repeatedly verified and screened risks in key stages such as voltage establishment, grid-connection impact, and stable load carrying. At the site, using advanced grid-forming wind-storage integrated technology, the energy storage equipment helped the turbines autonomously establish voltage and successfully energized the 35 kV collector line. Over the next three-plus hours, the equipment ran smoothly, achieving the goal of a single grid-forming turbine driving the restart of the entire wind farm.
The test’s success means Hebei’s black-start power source layout has been continuously optimized. In addition to existing centralized sources like pumped-storage hydropower, wind turbines have been added as local emergency restoration resources. This not only strengthens the defense line for grid safety under high shares of new energy but also opens a new technical path for rapid supply restoration under future fault scenarios, providing a replicable engineering sample for high-share new energy load areas in North China.