This paper develops a strategy of where and how to install and implement communication and remote control systems in the distribution network, with respect to lowering customer interruption cost and reliability indices. The aim is to evaluate and update customer restoration time based on the proposed level of automation in the system. Three different automation levels are considered: 1) ordinary secondary substation, that is not connected to the SCADA/DMS system; 2) monitored secondary substation that sends certain information to SCADA/DMS system; 3) monitored secondary substation with the addition of remotely controlled switching device. The developed strategy has been tested on three different models: 1) reference test system; 2) real feeder network; 3) small grid. Based on the results and the developed framework, the best strategy for implementing monitoring and remote control equipment is presented in the paper. It has been shown that the design of the system affects the results and the strategy. Moreover, secondary substations in models are highly dependent on each other’s configuration and level of automation.