Progressive protection functions for motor overload relay

An apparatus for protecting groups of electric motors, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processing logic, operatively coupled to the memory, to:
• monitor current used by each electric motor of a plurality of electric motors performing mutually similar or related tasks in an application;
• detect an occurrence of a fault consequence after an occurrence of a fault for at least one of the electric motors of the plurality;
• determine whether to continue running the plurality of electric motors after detecting the occurrence of the fault consequence, based on whether the application requires sustained running of all of the electric motors of the plurality;
• and
• change a duration between an occurrence of a fault and an occurrence of a subsequent fault consequence, from an initial duration to a changed duration, for all of the electric motors of the plurality, based on the determination.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that when executed, by a processor, cause the processor to, comprising:

• monitor current used by each electric motor of a plurality of electric motors performing mutually similar or related tasks in an application;
• detect an occurrence of a fault consequence after an occurrence of a fault for at least one of the electric motors of the plurality;
• determine whether to continue running the plurality of electric motors after detecting the occurrence of the fault consequence, based on whether the application requires sustained running of all of the electric motors of the plurality;
• and
• change a duration between an occurrence of a fault and an occurrence of a subsequent fault consequence, from an initial duration to a changed duration, for all of the electric motors of the plurality, based on the determination.