With last beta, we did something slightly different (basically because the core notion was already there for class diagram).
You can now put "tags" (using $) on components, then remove, hide or restore components either individually or by tags.
http://beta.plantuml.net/plantuml.jar
Here few examples that would help you :
@startuml
component foo1 $tag1
component foo2
component foo3 $tag1
hide $tag1
@enduml
@startuml
component foo1 $tag1
component foo2
component foo3 $tag1
remove $tag1
@enduml
Note that you can put several tags to components:
@startuml
component foo1 $tag1 $corecomponent
component foo2
component foo3 $tag1
remove $tag1
restore $corecomponent
@enduml
As I said, it's not exactly your request.Tell us if it's working for you.
If it's not enough, we will study the "remove unlinked" option.
Take care also...