Given the level of care required in writing software for running the national electrical grid, I think it's quite likely that writing the automation software would be more expensive than paying a human to deal with it. (Especially since this is just a small part of his day -- he presumably has other responsibilities as well.)
Emphasis should be on often. I don't think a cost benefit analysis would show automation in this instance to be worthwhile. But it would be interesting to see if I'm right!
I would assume that the National Grid have done such an analysis and determined that it isn't worthwhile, seeing as how... they still employ a bloke to do the job!
I'm pretty cynical... I suspect the analysis was - do we allow the guy on duty watch East Enders and do his job after hours, and pay him a bit of overtime, or do we pend a lot of money for IT to come up with an automated solution that might not work th first time...
