Power Grid Black-Start through LEO Satellite Communication

The growing dominance of inverter-based resources is reshaping power system restoration and increasing the reliance on communication-dependent control during black-start. Conventional terrestrial communication networks may be unavailable during blackout scenarios, motivating the use of alternative infrastructures such as low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems. This paper assesses the feasibility of employing LEO-based communication to support centralized power transmission grid restoration. An integrated co-simulation framework is developed that combines dynamic power system models with a centralized restoration controller and a measurement-based LEO communication model. The communication model is derived from empirical measurements of the commercial Starlink system obtained using the designed measurement setup. Realistic latency and packet loss characteristics are incorporated to evaluate their impact on voltage and frequency regulation during sequential load restoration. The proposed open-source framework supports the systematic evaluation of communication-aware restoration strategies. Simulation results show that LEO satellite communication can enable centralized black-start control under realistic conditions, while highlighting a trade-off between control performance and robustness to communication impairments. In particular, aggressive controller tuning is found to be more sensitive to communication delays and even leading to instabilities, suggesting that more conservative designs may be required in LEO-based restoration.