In this paper, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based intelligent controller for overcurrent (OC) protection of a radial distribution system is realized. This controller monitors the radial distribution network continuously and when a fault is detected in the network, the FPGA based adaptive and intelligent controller performs the OC relay coordination and trips the appropriate circuit breakers of the system. The FPGA based digital prototype relay for overcurrent protection is realized with Atlys Digilent Spartan-6 FPGA kit. The performance of the FPGA based overcurrent protection technique for a 4-bus radial distribution system is compared with that of the conventional dual simplex algorithm. The proposed FPGA based overcurrent protection algorithm is also tested for an IEEE 33-bus radial distribution network. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.