Study of the quench phenomenon is crucial for the design of Resistive Fault Current Limiters (RFCLs) based on high temperature superconducting coated conductors (HTS-CCs). An optimal stabilization of the tape is required to achieve both an economic device and a safe quench. In this context we developed an electro-thermal model that describe the HTS-CCs quench behavior for different degrees of inhomogeneity, both in terms of critical current and of thickness stabilizer. The critical current inhomogeneity for long lengths of tape has been modeled with Gaussian distributions. The mathematical expressions that define the superconducting-to-normal state transition are supported by experimental measurements. Our model allows optimizing the tape design leading to economic and safe limiting performance.