Case Study: Abitibi-Consolidated achieves faster, more reliable mill power protection with SEL

Paper Mill Pioneers Power Protection Using Optical Fiber Skywire Supported by Digital Relay Protection

Abitibi-Consolidated’s Iroquois Falls paper mill in Ontario needed more reliable protection for a unique power system that fed the mill directly from its own generation station over 12 kV transmission lines, with no transformers to buffer faults or transients. Because even brief outages could cause paper jams, equipment damage, and costly downtime, the company turned to Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) for stronger line protection and automation, including the SEL-311L Line Current Differential System.

SEL implemented a fiber-based protection scheme using existing optical ground wire and installed SEL-311L relays to provide high-speed differential protection, negative-sequence fault sensing, autoreclose, synchro-check, and backup distance/overcurrent functions. Abitibi also added an SEL-2030 Communications Processor for event reporting and time-stamped analysis across the system. The result was faster fault clearing, improved transient survival, better black-start and breaker-closing control, and more reliable operation for the mill’s generators and process loads.

Abitibi Consolidated

Don Elliott

Senior Power System Engineer