Blackouts, Brownouts do occur in power systems around the world despite all the precautions, engineering. A blackout or brownout proof system is difficult in today's world. However, in order to minimize the impact of such unfortunate blackouts and brownouts, planning, preparation, readiness for speedy revival of the system is very essential. Mock Black Start Exercises are carried out for this purpose. These exercises familiarize the operators with the system recovery procedures; build their confidence to meet actual contingencies and also to address systemic deficiencies detected during the exercise. The time taken during actual system restoration can be sufficiently reduced by these drills. This paper discusses an approach followed in Northern Region of India for such Black Start Exercises and also discusses some actual Black Start Exercise carried out in recent past.
