Overcurrent protection prevents damage from the overheating of critical components and conductors, further preventing fires and injury. These protection devices, namely relays, can respond instantly to serious problems, or allow for short recovery time following minor, routine events. : 4 The first protective relays were electromagnetic devices, relying on coils operating on moving parts to provide detection of abnormal operating conditions such as. Instantaneous Overcurrent Protection (IOCP) is a protection scheme used in power systems to rapidly clear short-circuit faults. They mostly play the role to prevent the circuits from overcurrent.