Optimal Overcurrent Relays' Coordination of Standard Inverse Characteristics Using Modified Barnacles Mating Optimizer (MBMO)

The primary objective of this study is to minimize the total operation time for all primary relays while ensuring selectivity criteria between relay pairs are met without violating operating constraints. Barnacles Mating Optimizer (BMO), an algorithm inspired by the mating selection and reproduction behaviors of barnacles is used to address the overcurrent relay (OCR) coordination problem using the normal inverse characteristic curve as outlined in the IEC guidelines. Modified Barnacles Mating Optimizer is proposed to enhance BMO, further addressing challenges such as premature convergences and computational complexity. The performance and feasibility of BMO and the proposed MBMO are evaluated using IEEE 9-bus, and 15-bus test systems, and the results are compared with other well-known optimization techniques. In this study, BMO slightly outperforms other algorithms, while MBMO improves performance by 0.06% for the 9-bus system and 42% for the 15-bus system compared to BMO.