2016 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence
Modeling Characteristic Curves of Digital
Overcurrent Relay (DOCR) for User-defined
Characteristic Curve Using Artificial Neural Network
Anang Tjahjono, Ardyono Priyadi, Margo Pujiantara,
Mauridhi Hery Purnomo
Department of Electrical Engineering
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia
Abstract Intelligent-based protective relays in the power
system is currently growing very rapidly with the use of embedded
systems and artificial intelligence algorithms. Overcurrent relays
operated based on the standard characteristic curve will move
toward digital overcurrent relay (DOCR) using a flexible
characteristic curve based on the user settings. DOCR with the
standard characteristic curve cannot be used if the user must make
modifications to the curve for field implementation purpose. In
this paper, a new DOCR based on modeling a characteristic curve
using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) will be presented. Four
types DOCR with the standard and user-defined characteristic
curve were developed and tested. Results demonstrate their
successful operation with highly accurate results. The results also
prove that the proposed DOCR with user-defined characteristic
curve may serve as a convenient alternative to the conventional
DOCR particularly on the implementation phase.
Keywordsdigital overcurrent relay; characteristic curve,
neural network; modeling; user defined.
I. INTRODUCTION
Power system protection has a significant contribution in
maintaining a stable supply of electric power, therefore it
requires a robust protection devices to ensure high reliability of
a power system that should not be disturbed even for a short time
[1-2]. Electrical interference that occurs in an electrical system
is typically a current flow that exceeds the normal current called
overcurrent. If it continues to remain the high current would lead
to short circuit. To protect from such a disaster, an overcurrent
relay (OCR) plays a very important role to maintain the stability
as well as for coordination among power system equipment [3-
4],
Development of relays has been shifted from its original
mechanical type into digital devices such as using a simple
microprocessor to realize the distance relay has been done [5]
while applying various types of overcurrent relay characteristic
curves [6]. Other alternatives have been conducted by using
EPROM memory that is filled with the characteristics of relay
[7]. Others investigated the use of a simulation function for the
characteristic curve [8-10]. Other studies using FPGA and
module board to realize more flexible overcurrent relay have
also been done [11-13].
978-1-5090-5510-4/16 $31.00 2016 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CSCI.2016.96
Taufik Taufik, Ali Shaban, Xiao-Hua Yu
Electrical Engineering Department
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California, USA
Artificial intelligence (AI) has brought the technological
advancement toward mimicking human intelligence. Examples
such as fuzzy logic control, artificial neural networks and their
combinations between fuzzy neural networks have been widely
utilized. In the power system especially for overcurrent
protection relay AI has also been widely studied [14-15] such as
modeling of DOCR tested employing a digital signal processor
[16], a computer or microcontroller [18-19].
It has been known that when it comes to OCR, end users
often face difficulties to make modifications on its characteristic
curve. Therefore, a new method must be sought to ease off the
process and hence to provide convenience for end users to
implement OCR. In this paper, the OCR characteristic curves
using standard equations will be solved by performing relay
modeling using artificial neural network (ANN). With the ability
to perform modeling, it would be simple to modify the
characteristic curves as desired and needed by the user. This
paper will present the results of modeling using ANN in OCR
using the standard characteristic curve equation for each relay
that is classified as the standard inverse (SI), very inverse (VI),
extremely inverse (EI) and long-time inverse (LTI). The inputs
to the model consist of Time multiplier setting (TMS), the
current pickup or current settings and load currents while the
output yields the operation time of OCR. In addition to modeling
the four different types of OCR using standard equations, the
model also incorporates user defined characteristic curve.
II. DIGITAL OVERCURRENT RELAY
Digital-based relaying was first contemplated during the late
1960s. The first article written by Rockefeller [20] suggests that
all of the power system could be protected using digital
computers, and from that moment the researchers has actively
been conducting research in the field of digital protection.
According to the standard IEC-60255 OCR consists of a
standard inverse, extremely inverse, very inverse and longtime
inverse, the graph as shown in Fig. 1.
The standard equation for the OCR characteristic curve
shown in Fig.1 using IEC-60255:
t = TMSK/((Iload/Ipick)^-1) (1)

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  reaches a value determined by the setting delay short circuit
current (Trip_Hset).
TMS: Time Multiplier Setting
I_load: Load Current
I_pick: Pickup Current or Current Setting

Fig. 2. Function block diagram of DOCR

Parameters to determine the function of DOCR is the time

multiplier setting (TMS) and the relay type. Fig.3 illustrates
important input and output parameters of DOCR. Fig.4 is a
timing diagram working operations of DOCR.

Fig. 1. OCR characteristic curve

The constant values of K and are given in Table I.

TABLE I. LIST O CONSTANT VALUE

Type of Relay K
Standard Inverse 0.14 0.02
Very Inverse 13.5 1
Extremely Inverse 80 2
Long Time Inverse 120 1 Fig. 3. Parameter input and output of DOCR

DOCR is actually an OCR with mechanical parts using

microprocessor or microcontroller as its main processor, along
with a current sensor and a voltage sensor to obtain current flow
at any given time. The algorithms installed in the
microcontroller memory unit will enable us to control a relay
operation to disconnect the line in case the current exceeds the
current setting or pickup of the OCR.
Fig. 2 is one example of a functional block diagram of
DOCR using a microcontroller unit (MCU). To get the value of
current and voltage, it uses sensors and signal conditioners that
will be read by the analog to digital converter (ADC) of the
microcontroller. In the memory of the MCU, a program is
installed to function as a relay. In addition, DOCR has
communication peripherals that are used for setting and
monitoring of power system equipment.
In general, DOCR operates by reading the conditions of the Fig. 4. Timing diagram of DOCR
current flowing at a time. If the current exceeds the preset pickup
current and does not exceed the short-circuit current (I_Hset) Fig.5 shows DOCR using four types of OCR namely SI, VI,
then DOCR will calculate how much the delay operation is EI and LTI. By providing the TMS and current pickup or current
needed, based on the characteristic curve equation. When the setting (I_pickup) and types of DOCR, the current flow I_load
time delay value has been reached, then the MCU will instruct will feed into the model by calculating the ratio I_load /
the relay to trip. If the current exceeds the preset short-circuit I_pickup. The result will produce a delay value for the relays to
current value, then the timer will start counting until the current trip by issuing a trip signal as output.

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Fig. 5. DOCR with four types of relay
III. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK
Artificial neural network (ANN) is a collection of simple
processors called nodes connected with each other, where each
node can only perform mathematical tasks in one way. The
number of nodes that are connected may be high, and so it may
generate very large jobs, as shown in Fig. 6. The input "i" will
be connected to all the nodes n, as well as between nodes. In
each node is a mathematical function that processes an incoming
signal to the node and output the resulting signal to each of its
connected nodes. There are also weight and bias as parameters
which must be found through training with reference to the value
of the output of "o" given the input " i ".
Fig. 6. Diagram of artificial neural network
Fig. 7 shows one node of a neural network with input i for n
and there is a bias b. The output may be written as:
 
The output is calculated through activation function or
transfer function:

Fig. 8 depicts the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) network. In
this case there are two layers, a hidden layer and an output layer,
each layer has a different amount of nodes as needed. Each node
consists of input, weight, bias and activation functions. In the
MLP network can be calculated output in the forward direction
by:
 Two inputs TMS and IL/Ipick
Assuming there are 3 neurons in the hidden layer and two
activation functions, then the total output is:

where the superscripts indicate the position of the layer.
Fig. 7. Node of Neural Network
Fig. 8. MLP network
The next step is learning to network by acquiring dynamic
parameters w and b until they reach the current output value
approximately equal to the desired target value. Alternative
learning algorithm may then be selected according to the
problem. The modeling is done with the following main
parameters
Number of inputs and outputs
Number of layers.
Feedforward backpropagation.
Function of the selected learning.
Activation function for hidden layer and output layer
Parameter learning and other functions
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Modeling DOCR with the standard characteristic curve
equation
Modeling is designed for the four types of OCR wherein
each relay has the TMS ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 and IL/Ipick
ratio ranging from 1.1 to 20. Using the standard equation, the
value of TMS and value IL/Ipick produced a number of 390 rows
of data. The network was designed as follows and is shown in
Fig. 9.
A single output t_opr or delay time
Two-layers, 1 hidden layer with 30 neurons and an output
layer
Use of feedforward backpropagation
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 Training function with Levernberg-Marqurdt. 0.3 0.000107 0.001203 0.000559 0.004610
Transfer function or activation function in the hidden layer 0.4 0.000107 0.001037 0.000769 0.003955
uses hyperbolic tangent or linear to the output layer.
0.5 0.000114 0.001122 0.000531 0.004713
0.6 0.000106 0.001117 0.000621 0.004102
0.7 0.000117 0.000786 0.000761 0.004742
0.8 0.000107 0.001174 0.000533 0.004535
0.9 0.000152 0.001022 0.001005 0.004971
1.0 0.000167 0.000878 0.000686 0.006065

Fig. 9. Design layout for standard characteristic curve

After the learning process and reaching 1000 epochs, the

simulation yielded mse =3.968e-10 for SI relay, mse =7.4582e-
9 for VI relay, mse =3.2794e-9 for EI relay, and mse =1.9747e-
9 for LTI relay. Results are plotted in Fig. 10.

Fig. 11. Modeling results for the characteristic curve SI

(A) (B)

(C) (D)
Fig. 12. Modeling results for the characteristic curve VI
Fig. 10. Best of Performance mse (A) SI, (B) VI, (C) EI, (D) LTI

After the evaluation and calculation of RMSE, the

characteristic curves resulted with the ANN model using the
standard equations are shown in Table II. The results are also
plotted in Figs. 11 to 15. Fig. 16 depicts the characteristic curve
of the modified relay. These results further demonstrate the
ability of changing the characteristic curve in the OCR should a
user require to do so during its field implementation.

TABLE II. LIST O RMSE

SI VI EI LTI
TMS
RMSE RMSE RMSE RMSE
0.1 0.000143 0.001421 0.000858 0.008116
0.2 0.000142 0.001594 0.001004 0.005830 Fig. 13. Modeling results for the characteristic curve EI

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 The results of modeling are given in Table III, and the results
of the characteristic curve graph are shown in Fig. 18. When
compared with the characteristic curves that have been modified
with characteristic curve model with Neural Network, the results
show accurate performance with RMSE= 0.003933 as shown in
Fig. 17. It proves that the neural network has been able to model
the characteristic curve relay. Fig. 18 presents three curves: the
original characteristic curve before being modified, after being
modified, and the characteristic curve modeling results with
Neural Network.

TABLE III. LIST O CONSTANT VALUE

Epochs 2000 Maximum epoch reached
Fig. 14. Modeling results for the characteristic curve LTI Best Training performance mse at
Performance 2.4628e-05
epoch 2000
Gradient 5.89e-05 At epoch 2000
B. Modeling User-defined Characteristic Curve Relay Mu 1.00e-8 At epoch 2000
Regression value 1 r1
In Fig. 15 shows relay characteristic curve that has been
Slope of regression 0.7926 m1
modified from SI-type relay characteristic curve with TMS = Offset of regression 0.9884 b1
0.1. Modeling the characteristic curve using Neural Network 379 data, target curve and model
with planning parameters uses the following: RMSE 0.003933
curve

Feedforward Backpropagation
Two layers, a single hidden layer of 10 neurons, there is
one output layer
One input and one output
Training data as much as 379
Levernberg-Marquardt training algorithm
Algorithm performance Mean Squared Error (mse)
Hidden layer used hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer
function
The output layer is used linear transfer function.
2000 epochs

Fig. 17. Modeling results for user defined characteristic curve

Fig. 15. Characteristic curve modified by the user

NN planning image shown in Fig. 16 uses the input data that

is the value IL / I_pick and one output that is the time to trip the
relay.
Fig. 18. Comparison charactersitic curve

Fig. 16. Design layout for user defined characteristic curve
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, modeling characteristic curves of digital
overcurrent relay (DOCR) for user-defined characteristic curve
using Artificial Neural Network has been presented. Simulation
test of the proposed model demonstrates the accuracy of the

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proposed model. This implies that the proposed DOCR offers a Relay, in 2014 6th IEEE Power India International Conference
significant opportunity to develop DOCR using characteristic (PIICON), 2014, pp. 15.
curves with rmse=0.0034, mse=2.463e-05 and regression r1=1, [14] D. N. Vishwakarma and Z. Moravej, ANN based directional overcurrent
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[17] A. Tjahjono, A. Priyadi, M. H. Purnomo, and M. Pujiantara, Overcurrent
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS relay curve modeling using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system, in
2014 Makassar International Conference on Electrical Engineering and
This research is one of the outputs of the program Informatics (MICEEI), 2014, pp. 103108.
"Improvement of Writing International Journal" which was [18] A. Tjahjono, D. O. Anggriawan, A. Priyadi, M. Pujiantara, and M. H.
funded by the Ministry of research, technology and higher Purnomo, Digital overcurrent relay with conventional curve modeling
education of the Republic of Indonesia, authors expressed using Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation, in 2015 International
gratitude to the ministry which has supported this program. Seminar on Intelligent Technology and Its Applications (ISITIA), 2015,
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Authors also express gratitude for the support and assistance [19] G. D. Rockefeller, Fault Protection with a Digital Computer, IEEE
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electrical engineering at California Polytechnic State University 
in San Luis Obispo California, USA. 

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