This conference focuses on the issues of automation and control of power system substations.

The 11th annual Western Power Delivery Automation Conference 2009 was organized by Washington State University and held at the historical Davenport hotel in Spokane, WA from 6 to 9 April, 2009.

At a time when Smart Grid is becoming a topic of discussions even in the media and billions of dollars are included in the stimulus bill, the conference proved once again that it has already been working for a decade on making the grid smarter by focusing on the fast-growing issues of automation and control of substations and electric power system.

The conference started with the keynote address by Carl Imhoff from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who talked about "Transforming the North American Power System: Policy and Technology Drivers of the Smart Grid Agenda".

This two-and-a half-day event was split in five sessions during which industry experts presented twenty papers selected by the program committee. The papers covered a wide range of issues that are very important for the successful transition of automation, control and protection systems from the electromechanical and solid state technology of the last century to the wide spread use of the technology of the twenty first century.

The main topics covered by the papers were:

• Networks-protocols and communication
• Case studies and applications
• Security
• Control and automation logic
• SCADA and wide area measurements
• Engineering and project management

Each paper presentation was followed by questions and discussions that allowed the participants to express their opinion and the authors to further explain the subject of their paper.

During the coffee and lunch breaks, as well as after the end of the day the attendees had the opportunity to see demonstrations and discuss the applications of the latest intelligent electronic devices and software tools that are becoming the foundation of the Smart Grid at the distribution and transmission levels of the power system.