Protection of an electric power delivery system using a traveling wave overcurrent element is disclosed herein. A maximum traveling wave mode among the alpha and beta modes is selected and compared with a traveling wave overcurrent threshold to determine a traveling wave overcurrent. Traveling wave overcurrent protection may be enabled depending on a termination status of the protected electric power delivery system. When a remote terminal is terminated on high surge impedance, a local protection system may use local traveling wave current quantities to determine a traveling wave overcurrent, and the traveling wave overcurrent may be used for line protection. Systems for detecting a termination status use local and remote current quantities.