Patent ID: 8842403

Claim:
An electrical system comprising: at least one load; a protective device having a settable tripping parameter for protecting the at least one load; and a control unit coupled to the at least one load for receiving a measured current value of the current consumed by the at least one load, the control unit being configured to determine a maximum measured current value that occurred within a monitoring time interval after elapse of the monitoring time interval, and being configured to determine a limit value as a function of a characteristic curve of a measured current value for setting a tripping current based on the maximum measured current value and at least one stored maximum measured current value of a preceding monitoring time interval, the settable tripping parameter of the protective device being set to protect the at least one load based on the determined limit value; wherein the control unit generates the limit value as a function of the characteristic curve of the measured current value, the limit value being specified to the protective device for setting the tripping parameter; wherein a safety margin is applied to maximum measured current values determined in monitoring time intervals to determine the limit value; and wherein the limit value is specified as an average of the maximum measured current values determined within elapsed monitoring time intervals and those to which the safety margin has been applied.