The relay applies protection elements such as overcurrent, distance, differential, voltage, frequency, thermal, directional, or ground fault logic. Protective relays and devices have been developed over 100 years ago to provide “lastline”of defense for the electrical systems. They are intended to quickly identify a fault and isolate it so the balance of the system continue to run under normal conditions. Definite time delay means that the protection operate time dose not change or depend on the. Protective Relay Definition: A protective relay is an automatic device that senses abnormal conditions in electrical circuits and triggers actions to isolate faults.