Impact of automation on distribution reliability

Summary form only given, as follows. In the last decade we saw a plethora of activity related to distribution automation. Many had hoped that by the end of the 20th century most utilities would embark on large-scale automation of their distribution facilities. However, that didn???t happen since many utilities found it difficult to justify distribution automation based on cost-benefit. Business uncertainties due to deregulation and restructuring of the power industry led to limited implementations of distribution automation. However, after the deregulation and restructuring issues are settled, distribution automation activities should increase. Performance based rates will ensure that power distribution companies look at automation to improve system performance and reliability to get competitive edge. Instead of embarking on mega projects, it is time to ???think small??? and use a bottom-up instead of top-down approach. The selection of a distribution automation strategy for implementation should always be based on need. A record of the panel discussion was not made available for publication as part of the conference proceedings.