IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution

Research Article

Adaptive modified firefly algorithm for optimal ISSN 1751-8687

Received on 7th October 2016

coordination of overcurrent relays

Revised 24th March 2017
Accepted on 21st April 2017
E-First on 7th July 2017
doi: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2016.1563
www.ietdl.org

Anang Tjahjono1,2 , Dimas O. Anggriawan2, Alfa K. Faizin1, Ardyono Priyadi1, Margo Pujiantara1, Taufik
Taufik3, Mauridhi Hery Purnomo1
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Sukolilo, Surabaya, Indonesia
2Electrical Engineering Department, Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya, Sukolilo, Surabaya, Indonesia
3Electrical Engineering Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA

E-mail: anang14@mhs.ee.its.ac.id

Abstract: One major concern in using over current relays (OCRs) is their coordination in power system protection to decrease
the pressure of electrical equipment and avoid mal-trip in the primary and backup relays. The issue has recently become more
challenging with the increasing use of distributed generation (DG). This study proposes the use of firefly algorithm (FA) to
achieve an optimised coordination of OCRs in power system protection when DG is present in the system. Typically, the FA is
done by selecting plug setting and time setting multiplier parameters. However, the algorithm associated with such method
requires a long convergence time and has the risk of getting trapped in local optima. Therefore, an adaptive modified FA
(AMFA) has been developed to overcome these issues and obtain the optimised coordination of OCRs. The AMFA is tested in
five case studies of a power system with DG whose results are then compared with those obtained from the conventional and
FA methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed AMFA is able to achieve the optimised coordination of OCRs in all test
cases with significant improvement in time reduction reaching 40.446%.

1 Introduction coordination of OCRs [14]. The conventional techniques

Protection coordination plays an important role in power systems
as it is mainly intended to save electrical equipment from fault
current. The protection is typically performed by coordinating relay
settings based on load flow and short-circuit analysis. In the
protection coordination, over current relay (OCR) is known to be
the most widely used relay type [1]. The OCR operates when it
detects a fault current and then gives instruction for the associated
circuit breaker (CB) to open. The CB ensures that the electrical
equipment is not affected by fault current. To improve power
system operation during over current fault, main and backup
protective devices are utilised and coordinated to protect the
system from the fault. The protection coordination must be
designed such that the OCR is selective, flexible, reliable, and fast
in isolating the faulted area. This way, poor protection
coordination, which may lead to wider fault zones, blackouts and
damage of electrical equipment can be prevented [2]. Referring to
the International Electrotechnical Commission, the standard of
OCR curves for inverse coordination is categorised as normal, very
and extreme [3–6].
In general, OCRs operate when they detect a fault current. To
optimise their coordination, the two important parameters are
OCR's plug setting (PS) and time setting multiplier (TSM). The PS
has current setting ranging from 50 to 200% in steps of 25%, while
the TSM adjusts the operation time of relay. In addition, the PS has
its upper and lower bounds defined by the minimum and maximum
fault currents consecutively [1, 7, 8].
With the increasing use of renewable energy sources,
integration of distributed generation (DG) in power systems has
become more prevalent. Despite their benefits, DGs may introduce
additional issues in both power system reliability and quality [9].
Several impacts of DGs in protection are the changing of fault level
current, unintended short circuit, and fault tripping in the network
[10, 11]. To overcome these issues, a new optimised coordination is
required to protect and effectively utilise the presence of DGs [12,
13].
Many attempts such as the conventional and heuristic
techniques have been conducted to determine the optimised
commonly implement the trial and error approach to coordinate the
OCRs. This approach yields slow convergence rate because it
needs many iterations to achieve an optimised condition. For
coordination of OCRs in power system, such approach will
increase electrical equipment stress leading to their reduced life or
even damage. Therefore, advanced optimisation techniques are
needed to address these issues, in which relays are arranged in the
sequence before they were considered for coordination [15]. The
OCR coordination problem is typically handled by using linear
programming (LP), including the simplex, two-phase simplex and
dual simplex methods [16–18]. In these methods, the PSs are
assumed to be predetermined and calculated using the fault data
and maximum load current. The operating time is optimised by
TSM. However, the optimisation techniques do not yield an
optimal answer and may be trapped in the local minimum values.
Bedekar et al. [19] recommended an optimum coordination of
OCRs using the Big-M LP method in distribution network.
However, the Big-M method optimises only TSM in which PS is
assumed to be known and fixed. Hence, this method does not
achieve the optimal value answer of objective function (OF).
Nature inspired algorithm (NIA) methods can then be
implemented to obtain the optimum coordination of OCRs, which
are capable of solving complex and non-linear optimisation
problems. Some of the NIAs like evolutionary programming [20],
particle swarm optimisation (PSO) [21], seeker algorithm [22] and
teaching–learning base optimised algorithm [23] are proposed to
calculate the optimal coordination of OCRs for relay setting.
Razavi et al. [7] genetic algorithm (GA) is used to obtain the
optimal coordination of OCRs. The coordination of OCRs problem
has been solved in [24] using hybrid GA, considering the effects of
the different network topologies. The problem of OCRs
coordination is formulated as non-LP (NLP) and a hybrid GA–NLP
approach in [25] is used to obtain the optimal solution. Differential
evolution algorithm with modified mutation techniques is also
applied for the optimal coordination of OCRs [26]. Optimisation
techniques [21–26] are successfully applied for optimisation of
OCRs coordination problem. However, they all share a common

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concern in their optimal value solution since these methods may
lead to being trapped in the local optima and thus failure to get the
global optimal answers.
Another NIA method is the firefly algorithm (FA) which is
chosen to get an optimised OCR operation [27]. For optimisation,
the performance of the FA is associated with a random value of
Gaussian distribution which causes slow convergence and trapping
in the local optimising point. Therefore, a new fast adaptive
modified FA (AMFA) is proposed to find an optimal coordination
of OCRs. AMFA modifies the FA by way of the exploration in
searching the optimum coordination of OCRs and increasing the
speed towards convergence [27–30]. An example of an optimal
coordination for OCRs that is applied in a radial DG system is
presented in [31].
This paper is organised into several sections. Section 2 explains
problem formulation on optimal coordination of OCRs. Section 3
describes the FA followed by discussion of AMFA in Section 4.
Section 5 presents the analysis of simulation results. Finally,
Section 6 provides the conclusion.
2 Formulation problems in optimised OCRs
coordination
The main OF of optimal OCR's coordination is gained via TSM
and PS settings whose time is minimised by using modified FA
(MFA). Equation (1) shows the optimisation problem of OCR
coordination, which represents the sum of the operation times for
OCR's coordination
n speed of firefly is fast with very high probability of finding the
Minimise OF = ∑ W j ⋅ tj m , (1)
j=1
where n  is the number of OCRs; tj,m  is the  operation time for the
relay Xj when fault at m occurs; and Wj  is the weight that
demonstrates fault probability in a line.
Weight value is usually one; therefore, the fault has equal
probability on each line. The constraints to obtain the optimal
operating times of OCRs are discussed next.
2.1 Coordination criteria
The primary and backup relay sensors work simultaneously when a
fault condition occurs. When the primary relay fails to operate, the
backup relay operates to isolate the faulted area. The operation
times for relay and CB, and the overshoot time are parameters
which determine the optimum operating time of relay.
Coordination time interval (CTI) is defined as the sum of operation
time of main relay, CB, and overshoot time. The following
equation gives the coordination constraint:
t j, m − ti, m ≥ Δt (2)
where tj,m is the operation time of the backup relay for the fault
current at m, ti,m is the operation time of the primary relay for the
fault current at m, and Δt is the CTI with values from 0.2 to 0.5 s
[24].
The operation time of relay also has constraint due to its
requirement in minimum or maximum operation time
t j, min ≤ t j, m ≤ t j, max (3)
where tj,min is the smallest operation time for relay j, tj,max is the
maximum operation time for relay j.
Relay operation time is directly affected by TSM; therefore, the
constraint can be shown as
TSM j, min ≤ TSM j ≤ TSM j, max (4)
where TSMj,min is the optimum score in TSM for relay j, and
TSMj,max is the optimum score in TSM for relay j.
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The following equation shows the boundaries in the PS of every
relay:
PS j, min ≤ PS j ≤ PS j, max (5)
where PSj,min is the smallest value for PS relay j, and PSj,max is the
optimum score for PS at relay j.
Each relay has the same characteristic which follows:
0.14 × TSM j
T j, m = 0.02 (6)
I j, m /PS −1
where Ij,m is the over current passing the relay.
3 FA and modified FA
The FA was proposed by Xin She Yang who was inspired by the
movement of fireflies at Cambridge University [27, 32]. For
simplicity, three ideas of FA are described as follows [33, 34]. First
all fireflies, which attract each other regardless of their sex, have
the same sex. Second, the attractiveness degree is related to their
brightness, thus a bright firefly attracts the less bright firefly.
Finally, the value of the purpose function affects the brightness of
each firefly.
FA has several advantages such as ability to deal with highly
non-linear, multi-modal optimisation problems naturally and
efficiently, does not use velocity, and thus does not have any
associated problems with velocity known in PSO, the convergence
global optimisation answer, does not require a good initial solution
to start its iteration process.
In minimisation problems, the firefly with higher light intensity
has lower OF. Mathematically, (7) expresses the attractiveness as
β(r) = β0e( − γr ),
m
m≥1 (7)
where r is the distance between two fireflies using Cartesian
distance. The distance between the jth and ith fireflies is shown as
follows:
k
ri j = ∥ X j − X i ∥ = ∑ (x j m − xi m)
, ,
2
m=1
(8)
X j = x j, 1, x j, 2, x j, 3, …, x j, k
X i = xi, 1, xi, 2, xi, 3, …, xi, k
The move of a firefly with low brightness (Xi) will be towards a
brighter firefly (Xj) determined by
m
X i = X i + β0 e( − γr )(X j − X i) + αεi (9)
where εj is a random value in Gaussian distribution. The equation
shows the movement of fireflies consisting of three terms: the
present position of an ith firefly, movement of ith firefly towards
another more attractive firefly, and the random firefly movement
with value from interval [0, 1]. The constant value α at any time
will lead to slow convergence and traps into many local optima.
This in turn constitutes the parameter to modify in order to improve
the performance of the standard FAs as in the MFA [35]. With
MFA the parameter α is reduced by a certain constant value is
presented in the pseudo code given in Fig. 1.
4 Proposed AMFA
Various methods have been adopted to improve the performance of
the FA such as one proposed by Niknam et al. for reserving a
dynamic constrained economic dispatch [30]. Two parameters that
are often tuned are the random movement factor (α) and the
absorption coefficient (γ). However, if these values are selected
inappropriately then convergence is slow to achieve, and the result
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Fig. 1 Pseudo code
Fig. 2 AMFA flowchart for obtaining PS and TSM
is not optimal and it may get stuck in local optima. Another method
has also been done in an effort to get the optimum value on the
basis of firefly and chaotic algorithm called the firefly chaotic
algorithm [31], the firefly standard uses a random number
generator to generate the population, whereas in the chaotic FA, the
user initialises the initial alpha, and uses the tent map function to
generate chaotic distribution and subsequent α instead of using
random numbers.
Parameter α, as previously mentioned, plays an important role
in controlling the random movements to get a solution, and it
generally takes on values between 0 and 1. A high value of α will
have a small degree of accuracy to search for an optimal value
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because the random displacement of firefly becomes too wide that
the firefly movement does not lead to the desired point. A small α
on the other hand will yield good convergence rate for the
displacement of firefly going towards the desired point. However,
if the starting value of α is set to a small value, then α will reduce
to a value that is almost the same as eliminating the random
displacement of a firefly. This is not desirable since random
displacement helps find a better coordination. In addition, reducing
the value of α will impede the ability to obtain maximum
convergence due to the reduced maximum iteration value, making
it difficult to find convergence. Therefore, modifying the value of α
adaptively would solve this issue. Although firefly has a random α
value, it will still be capable of moving towards the optimal point
since the value of α will change according to the distance. As the
distance is getting closer to optimal, α will become smaller to
minimise the random values.
The proposed algorithm aims to dynamically tune the value of α
in an iteration and eliminates FA's weakness by managing α which
influences the fireflies to explore optimised OCR coordination.
Having such adaptive properties, the proposed algorithm is called
the adaptive modified firefly algorithm.
AMFA guarantees faster convergence to find global optimum
solution. AMFA decreases the random movement of fireflies by
applying the random movement factor α which is controlled self-
adaptively by corresponding to iteration change. The random
movement factor α is dynamically tuned in each iteration by the
following equation:
1
αk + 1 = αk × 1/2 × kmax
kmax + 1
(10)
where k is the sequence of iterations and kmax is the maximum
iteration. Fig. 2 shows the flowchart of AMFA.
5 Simulation results and analysis
To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a radial
network is used consisting of a grid, a wind turbine generator
(WTG), a generator, a transformer 138/13.8 kV, four-bus systems
and six relays. Fig. 3 shows the three-phase radial network with
grid voltage of 138 kV utilising a 138/13.8 kV transformer.
Capacities of generators are: DG 2.5 MW at bus 2A, synchronous
generator 4 MW at bus 3, and wind turbine 2.5 MW at bus 2.
Loads are set as 2.128 MVA at bus 2, 0.775 MVA at bus 3 and 11 
MVA at bus 4. The proposed algorithm is tested under four
different cases with changing conditions of the systems under the
existence of DG influence set as protection coordination. Fig. 4
shows the change of fault current in every bus in each of the five
cases summarised as follows:
Test case 1: Optimised coordination of OCRs with all generators
operating.
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 Test case 2: Optimised coordination of OCRs with the active grid
and the generator in operation, while the WTG is off.
Test case 3: Optimised coordination of OCRs with only the active
grid operates as the source.
Test case 4: Optimised coordination of OCRs with the active grid
off, while the generator and WTG are active.
Test case 5: Additional DG, bus and load are connected to further
test the performance of the proposed algorithm.

The proposed method is compared with the conventional

protection coordination using FA and MFA and PSO. The system is
equipped with six OCRs each with one pair of PS and TSM
settings. The protection coordination uses primary and backup
OCRs. For example, in the test case 3 for a fault current at bus 4,
relay R1 represents the primary relay while R23, R3 and R4 act as
the backup relays.

5.1 Test case 1

In test case 1, the proposed method is implemented with the active
grid, generator and WTG. This condition yields the biggest fault
current among other conditions. Table 1 shows the results of
optimised coordination with the new method. There are five OCRs
for relay coordination with R23 as the directional OCR to backup
R1. In the faulted bus 4, the results indicate that the OFs or
operating time for all relays using the proposed method are faster
than those obtained with FA and MFA and PSO in test case 1 with
values of 2.9915, 5.1253, 3.0528 and 3.15 s, respectively. The
results also yield a standard deviation of 0.00130 from ten
executions.
The time reduction to achieve the operating time for relays
using the new method is 41.63% less than that of FA. This
demonstrates that the new method for protection coordination in
test case 1 is more optimal and can significantly reduce the whole
relay operation time compared with FA in the radial DG networks.
Fig. 5 exhibits the faster convergence rate for the proposed
algorithm compared with those of FA and MFA. The optimised
coordination of OCRs with the proposed method is shown in
Fig. 6.

Fig. 3 Radial DG system for optimal coordination of OCRs
Fig. 4 Fault current in every bus with different test cases (cases 1–4)
5.2 Test case 2
In test case 2, the AMFA is implemented without WTG in
operation. This condition gives a lower fault current than the fault
in test case 1. Table 2 shows the results of optimised coordination
with the new method. There are four OCRs for relay coordination
with R23 as the directional OCR to backup R1. In the faulted bus
4, the results indicate that the OF or operating time for all relays
with the proposed method are lower than FA and MFA and PSO in
test case 2 with values of 2.5052, 4.0496, 2.5623 and 2.87 s,
respectively. Furthermore, the standard deviation obtained is
0.00081 with ten executions.
The time reduction to achieve the operating time for all relays
using the proposed method reaches 38.14% less than that of FA. It
means that the proposed method for protection coordination in the
test case 2 is more optimal as it can significantly reduce the whole
operation times of relays compared with FA in the DG radial
networks. Fig. 7 shows that the proposed method results in very
fast convergence rate, and faster convergence compared with FA
and MFA. Fig. 8 is a graph of the characteristic curve for each
relay prior to and after optimisation for the test case 2 in which the

Table 1 Results of optimised coordination of OCRs with AMFA and PSO in test case 1
Relay FA MFA AMFA PSO
PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM
R1 0.968 0.196 0.967 0.105 0.879 0.101 1.104 0.224
R23 0.825 0.328 0.824 0.216 0.824 0.211 1.092 0.421
R3 0.977 0.42 0.976 0.206 0.976 0.199 1.225 0.488
R4 0.882 0.494 0.879 0.35 0.879 0.346 1.065 0.394
R6 0.862 0.444 0.861 0.305 0.861 0.301 1.129 0.384
function, s 5.1253 3.0528 2.9915 3.15

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Fig. 5 FV of the AMFA, FA, MFA and PSO in test case 1

Fig. 6 Optimised coordination of OCRs with the proposed method

(a) Optimised coordination of OCRs with a convention method in test case 1, (b) Proposed protection scheme in test case 1

Table 2 Results of optimal coordination of OCRs using AMFA and PSO in test case 2
Relay FA MFA AMFA PSO
PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM
R1 0.970 0.276 0.967 0.107 0.966 0.101 1.081 0.571
R23 0.826 0.406 0.824 0.216 0.824 0.211 1.006 0.920
R3 0.977 0.383 0.976 0.196 0.976 0.191 1.034 0.200
R4 0.882 0.522 0.879 0.356 0.879 0.351 1.083 0.445
function, s 4.0496 2.5623 2.5052 2.87

WTG is not in operation. Fig. 8a shows the optimised coordination
of OCR with a convention method, performed by changing the
value of PS and the value of TSM manually trial and error, and
Fig. 8b shows the optimised coordination of OCR using the
proposed algorithm. It is observed that the order of coordination of
the relay using the value of the proposed calculation method has
been successfully set up the coordination of the system by using
the PS and TSM of calculations using the proposed algorithm.
5.3 Test case 3
In test case 3, the AMFA is tested with the grid as the only supply
and Table 3 shows the resulting optimised coordination. There are

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Fig. 7 FV of the proposed method, FA, MFA and PSO in test case 2

Fig. 8 Optimised coordination of OCR with a convention method, performed by changing the value of PS and the value of TSM manually trial and error
(a) Optimised coordination of OCRs with a convention method in test case 2, (b) New protection scheme in test case 2

Table 3 Results of optimised coordination of OCRs with AMFA and PSO in test case 3
Relay FA MFA AMFA PSO
PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM
R1 0.968 0.277 0.967 0.105 0.966 0.101 1.116 0.389
R23 0.825 0.385 0.824 0.207 0.824 0.201 0.881 0.496
R3 0.977 0.391 0.976 0.181 0.976 0.176 1.019 0.334
R4 0.882 0.554 0.879 0.352 0.879 0.346 1.069 0.454
function, s 3.2166 2.0805 2.0237 2.63

four OCRs for relay coordination with R23 as the directional OCR
to backup R1. In test case 3, relay R32 is not active because the
power flows in only one direction. In the faulted bus 4, the results
indicate that the OF or operating time for all relays of the proposed
method is less than FA and MFA and PSO in test case 3 with
values of 2.0237, 3.2166, 2.0805 and 2.63 s, respectively. With the
proposed method, the standard deviation of 0.00110 was obtained
with ten executions.
The time reduction to achieve the operating time for all relays
using the proposed method reaches 37.09% less than that of FA. It
shows that the AMFA method for protection coordination in test
case 3 is more optimal and the sum of relay operation time without

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Fig. 9 FV from the proposed method, FA, MFA and PSO in test case 3
Fig. 10 Optimised coordination of OCRs with AMFA
(a) Optimised coordination of OCRs using a convention method in test case 3, (b) Proposed protection scheme in test case 3
DG is significant compared with FA. In Fig. 9, the convergence
rate of the AMFA is faster than FA and MFA. The optimised
coordination of OCRs with AMFA is shown in Fig. 10.
5.4 Test case 4
Test case 4 shows the experiment of using the proposed AMFA
method when the grid is disconnected from the network. This
condition relies on two generators that ensure the continuity of
electrical supply and yields fault current less than those in the
previous three cases. Table 4 shows the result of optimised
coordination with the AMFA method. There are three OCRs for
relay coordination with R23 functioning as the directional OCR to
backup R1. In the faulted bus 4, the results indicate that the OF or
operating time for all relays using AMFA is less than those of FA,
MFA and PSO whose values are 2.0663, 3.5764, 2.1091 and 2.36 s,
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respectively. The standard deviation obtained with the proposed
method is 0.00123 with ten executions.
The time reduction to achieve the operating time for all relays
using the proposed method represents 42.22% compared to FA. It
shows that the proposed method for protection coordination in test
case 3 is more optimal and can make relay operation times more
significant than with FA in the radial DG network. In Fig. 11, the
convergent rate of the proposed method is faster than those with
FA and MFA. The optimised coordination of OCRs with the
proposed method is shown in Fig. 12.
5.5 Test case 5 with complex systems
To increase the complexity of the test network, additional
components are connected to the initial network: A 3 MW DG,
three loads that are set as 0.775 MVA at bus 3, 0.775 MVA at bus 4
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Table 4 Results of optimised coordination of OCRs with AMFA and PSO in test case 4
Relay FA MFA AMFA PSO
PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM
R1 0.970 0.293 0.967 0.106 0.966 0.101 1.207 0.610
R23 0.936 0.317 0.935 0.181 0.935 0.176 0.876 0.240
R6 0.828 0.364 0.827 0.207 0.827 0.204 0.916 0.319
function, s 3.5764 2.1091 2.0663 2.36

Fig. 11 Convergent rate of the proposed method is faster than those with FA and MFA
FV of proposed method, FA, MFA and PSO in test case 4

Fig. 12 Optimised coordination of OCRs with the proposed method

(a) Optimised coordination of OCRs with convention method in test case 2, (b) Proposed protection scheme in test case 4

and 0.5 MVA at bus 5. The new system is shown in Fig. 13. In
addition, the system is equipped with ten OCRs each with one pair
of PS and TSM settings. The proposed method is tested by using
this complex network for optimised coordination of OCRs where
all the sources are in operation.
In test case 5, the AMFA is implemented to the system as
previously described with more DGs and more number of relays.
This condition increases the complexity of the system and
consequently bigger fault current than other test cases. Table 5
shows the results of optimised coordination with the new method.
There are seven OCRs for relay coordination with R2 and R34 as
the directional OCRs. In the faulted bus 5, the results indicate that
the OF or operating time for all relays of the proposed method are
lower than FA and MFA in test case 2 with values of 3.0170,
5.3074 and 3.0775 s, respectively. The resulting standard deviation
is 0.00087 with ten executions.

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 Fig. 14 FV of proposed method, FA and MFA for 50 fireflies in test case 5

FA and MFA as illustrated in Fig. 14. The optimised coordination

of OCRs with the proposed method is shown in Fig. 15.

5.6 Proposed protection scheme versus conventional

scheme
The proposed AMFA was further tested against the conventional
scheme, using the same test case results as shown in Table 6. The
table indicates the improved performance with AMFA yielding
faster operation time compared to the conventional method. This
demonstrates that the proposed method can effectively optimise
coordination of OCRs which will in turn reduce equipment stress
and prolong their life time, ultimately minimising the cost of
maintenance and repairs.

5.7 Performance of convergence time and the fitness value

(FV)
Table 7 shows the result of time to reach a convergence value as
well as the FV from each FA, MFA and AMFA. The results have
proven that the proposed AMFA is able to achieve the fastest
convergence time compared with the other algorithms.

Fig. 13 Complex system for optimal coordination of OCRs
The time reduction to achieve the operating time for all relays
using the proposed method reaches 43.15% less than that of FA. It
means that the proposed method for protection coordination in the
test case 5 is more optimal as it can significantly reduce the whole
operation times of relays compared with FA in the complex DG
radial networks. As before, the proposed method proves to give
very fast convergence rate and faster convergence compared with
6 Conclusion
A proposed algorithm is introduced to obtain the optimised
coordination of OCRs with DG in a radial system. The operation
times for main and backup OCRs are reduced by the proposed
algorithm with obtained values from TSM and PS. When the
proposed algorithm is applied to five conditions to evaluate its
performance, the results show that the proposed algorithm
improves the performance of the FA with self-adaptive parameter
tuning of the random movement factor. The results further show
the superiority of the proposed algorithm for protection
coordination compared to the conventional method, FA, MFA and
PSO in the radial systems with DG. In terms of the convergence
rate, the proposed algorithm is faster compared to FA and MFA.
Overall, the results prove that the proposed algorithm for

Table 5 Results of optimised coordination of OCRs with AMFA in test case 5

Relay FA MFA AMFA
PS TSM PS TSM PS TSM
R5 1.054 0.515 1.050 0.307 1.050 0.301
R4 0.859 0.384 0.859 0.215 0.859 0.211
R34 0.841 0.359 0.840 0.225 0.840 0.221
R2 0.737 0.382 0.735 0.155 0.735 0.151
R1 0.684 0.283 0.683 0.106 0.683 0.101
R7 0.701 0.475 0.700 0.358 0.700 0.351
R6 0.947 0.489 0.945 0.305 0.945 0.301
function, s 5.3074 3.0775 3.0170

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2017, Vol. 11 Iss. 10, pp. 2575-2585 2583
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Fig. 15 Optimised coordination of OCRs with the proposed method
(a) Optimised coordination of OCRs with a convention method in test case 5, (b) New protection scheme in test case 5

Table 6 Results of optimised OCR coordination with conventional method and proposed algorithm
Case Relay Fault current, A Conventional, s Proposed algorithm, s
test case 1 R1 300 0.46 0.388
R23 600 0.905 0.775
R3 2700 0.959 0.767
R4 300 1.448 1.253
R6 900 1.267 1.093
test case 2 R1 300 0.576 0.388
R23 600 0.905 0.757
R3 2700 0.959 0.729
R4 300 1.448 1.264
test case 3 R1 300 0.576 0.388
R23 600 0.905 0.731
R3 1800 0.996 0.718
R4 300 1.448 1.253
test case 4 R1 300 0.576 0.388
R23 592 0.729 0.678
R6 596.5 1.392 1.155
test case 5 R5 300 1.302 0.832
R4 1500 1.314 1.074
R34 1000 0.705 0.609
R2 1000 0.509 0.394
R1 750 0.356 0.297
R7 1000 1.008 0.872
R6 1000 1.232 1.065

Table 7 Comparison of the time towards converging and FV

Case FA MFA AMFA
t, s FV t, s FV t, s FV
1 0.21 5.468 0.20 3.193 0.15 3.045
2 0.21 4.635 0.22 2.778 0.12 2.603
3 0.22 3.497 0.18 1.933 0.15 1.715
4 0.19 3.782 0.18 2.117 0.14 2.067
5 0.23 5.152 0.22 3.079 0.16 3.017

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protection coordination can decrease the relay operation time in
radial DG network. The operation time reduction for all test cases
is at least 40.446% more significant than that of the conventional
method FA.
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