Time Delay Setting of Overcurrent Relay Protection Using Modified Particle Swarm Optimization in Electrical System of Moramo Steam Power Plant

The protection system is a system that employs relays as its working devices. The overcurrent relay is the most widely used relay for safeguarding against overcurrent or short circuit disturbances. This protection equipment is coordinated and applied in large-scale industries, including the Moramo Steam Power Plant located in South Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. This study focuses on optimizing the time delay setting (TDS), but coordinating the relays can be challenging, complex, and time-consuming. Therefore, an optimization algorithm is chosen to facilitate determining the Time Delay Setting (TDS) value for the coordinated relays. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) was developed to solve optimization problems. However, in this research, it will be compared with Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) to investigate if MPSO, as a modified optimization of PSO, can provide the best TDS value for the electrical system. Through this comparison, it is found that MPSO is the optimization method that can achieve the best TDS coordination and the minimum Time of Operation (TOP) for the overcurrent relay. It effectively protects power components, such as induction motors and transformers, during disturbances in the system. The optimization algorithm is implemented using MATLAB and simulated in the ETAP program.