The relaxation dynamics of the polar nano-regions (PNRs) in the 0.78Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.2SrTiO3-0.02BaTiO3 lead free ternary system over a wide temperature range (50–650 °C) is investigated using complex electric modulus formalism. The modulus spectra are analyzed across three characteristic temperatures TB, Tm, and Tf with a special focus on the evolution of dynamics of PNRs. Portraying high capacitance of shoulder response as compared to the bulk response in M“(f) spectra shows indirectly the presence of highly polarisable entities that persist even above TB and below Tf. The activation energies extracted from an Arrhenius fit to the relaxation time of both bulk and shoulder response signify different relaxation mechanisms. Further, the value of the stretched exponent β and the scaling behavior study of the M“(f) spectra envisage temperature sensitive dipolar relaxation. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd