The Distributed ReStart project from National Grid PLC - testing how wind and solar can restart the UK grid

Reviewed: ad hoc news New Release & Launch desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-23, 16:26. Details in the imprint.

Distributed ReStart project from National Grid PLC sounds abstract until you imagine an engineer like project director Duncan Burt standing in a quiet control room, watching a dark UK map slowly light up from a single wind farm. That is the core promise: using distributed renewables to restart the grid after a blackout. And it changes how investors and consumers can think about grid resilience in a renewables-heavy system.

How Distributed ReStart works

At its heart, the Distributed ReStart project is a joint innovation program between National Grid, SP Energy Networks and ScottishPower Renewables, funded through the UK electricity Network Innovation Competition regulator framework. It explores whether small and medium-sized distributed energy resources can deliver “black start” services, traditionally provided only by large thermal power stations. A National Grid project overview describes how the team built and tested new control schemes to make this work safely.

In practice, the concept is simple to picture. After a rare but serious total or regional shutdown, instead of firing up one big coal unit first, grid engineers could energize parts of the network from a wind farm or hydro plant, then carefully add solar parks, battery storage and local demand. The project has been running staged trials in Scotland, with real-world tests on the transmission system under tightly controlled conditions, to prove that this kind of bottom-up restart can be coordinated securely.

Why black start needs a rethink

Black start is the capability to restart the electricity system without external power, something historically provided by a small fleet of large fossil-fuel stations held under long-term contracts. As coal and older gas plants retire, that model becomes more expensive and less aligned with the UK’s decarbonisation targets. National Grid stresses in its project papers that new approaches are needed to maintain security of supply while cutting emissions. The Distributed ReStart trials are designed to show that renewable-based restart is technically and commercially viable alongside traditional options.

One of the most tangible scenes from the live tests is a normally humming substation sitting almost silent, with only the wind and the distant soft roar of turbines turning. Engineers then close a breaker, a transformer energises with a low mechanical thud, and the local network slowly comes back to life powered from a wind farm several kilometres away. That kind of tactile experience matters for control-room staff, who need confidence that the process behaves exactly as the models predict.

New control systems and data flows

To make distributed restart possible, the project team had to build new control architectures that link the transmission system operator, distribution network operators and individual generators in near real time. According to a detailed project report hosted by SP Energy Networks, new interfaces and communication protocols were tested to allow distributed resources to receive precise voltage and frequency setpoints during a restart sequence. SP Energy Networks outlines how these interfaces sit on top of existing SCADA systems rather than replacing them.

In parallel, the consortium ran extensive simulation studies on realistic UK network models. These examined how quickly islands of generation and demand could be formed, how they would respond to disturbances, and what sequencing would minimise stress on equipment. The final stages of the project included controlled field trials with ScottishPower Renewables wind assets in Scotland, building up from energising a single circuit to supplying local demand under supervision from the National Grid control room.

What it could mean for consumers

For a household in Glasgow or a small business in rural Wales, Distributed ReStart is not a product you can buy, but it may influence how often your lights go off and how long they take to come back. If the approach works at scale, it could widen the pool of assets able to provide black start services, increasing competition and potentially reducing the long-term cost of resilience that ends up in network charges. It also fits neatly with a grid that is expected to host much more offshore wind, onshore renewables and storage by the 2030s.

National Grid has been clear that the project is not about abandoning conventional black start overnight. Instead, it is exploring a future mix in which distributed renewable and storage assets take on a growing share of the role. The company argues that this would support both net-zero ambitions and security of supply, a combination regulators and policymakers are watching closely as they update system planning assumptions.

Risks, limits and open questions

No one in the project team, including senior figures like Duncan Burt, pretends that distributed restart is risk-free or universally applicable. There are obvious questions about cyber security, communications robustness and coordination between many small participants during a stressful system event. The project has therefore emphasised layered protection and fallbacks, demonstrating that if communications are lost or a unit behaves unexpectedly, the restart sequence can halt safely without making a bad situation worse.

Another challenge is commercial. Today’s black start contracts are long term and tied to a small number of providers. Moving to a more distributed model would require new procurement frameworks, new testing requirements and, potentially, smaller contract sizes that can attract independent renewable developers and storage operators. The final project reports point out that market design will determine whether the technical potential identified in the trials turns into real-world services and revenues for flexible assets.

Context and share-market view

Distributed ReStart sits alongside other innovation projects in National Grid’s portfolio that aim to adapt the UK transmission network for a high-renewables, high-electrification future. The program is relatively small in financial terms compared with the company’s multi-billion-pound regulated investment plan, but it sends a clear message about how the operator intends to manage system stability as conventional plants close. On the London Stock Exchange, the National Grid PLC share price most recently traded at around 1,221 pence, according to market data providers, underlining the group’s role as a core defensive utility for many UK portfolios.

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