Benefits of upgrading: paper mill generator protection

There are a number of functional protection areas on paper mill generators 20 years or older that have significant shortcomings when compared to current IEEE recommended generator-protection practices. This article identifies these protection areas and the risks of not addressing the shortcomings. It also points out the advantages of using multifunction digital relaying to upgrade generator protection as a technology that offers many advantages over older electromechanical relays. The completed upgrade project at MeadWestvaco´s Luke Mill in Maryland provided a number of examples of these benefits in uncovering mill problems that, if they had gone undetected, could have resulted in costly mill shutdowns or damage to mill generators.