In order to meet the electric energy needs at the beginning of this new millennium, utilities need to provide high quality power over a reliable grid, to satisfy customer's growing service quality expectations and to support, as well, a wide array of additional new services. One of the solutions is a successful power grid management activity such as "Smart Distribution" (SD) or Distribution Automation (DA), which hinges on the information collected from the grid itself using an integrated

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... ring system that enables real-time monitoring of grid conditions for distribution system operators. It allows automatic reconfiguration of the grid to optimize the power delivery efficiency and/or reduce the impact and duration of outages. The foundation of the monitoring system infrastructure is based on transducers, sensors and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) collecting information throughout the distribution system. Hydro-Québec (HQ) is showing leadership in this field, conducting several projects related to Smart Distribution such as Volt&VAR Control (VVC), Fault Location (FL), Power Quality Monitoring (PQM) and evaluation of the metering potential of major distribution equipment controls, which collect raw data from the grid, treat it locally and transfer it to system control centers or elsewhere. There, the information is used for real time treatment or non real time post treatment. This paper discusses the structure and the accuracy of an integrated monitoring system based on sensors and IEDs and reports on some of the results and conclusions of Hydro-Québec's projects related to Smart Grid applications and technologies.