On a different aspect of the topic: looking at the cap banks on aerial distribution primary lines, I'm surprised by how many have one or two of the three cutouts open, and have been in that state for quite a while.
Since not all of the cutouts are open, I'm assuming the openings are due to fuses blowing rather than intentional switching operations (i.e. I don't *think* cap switching is done on a phase-by-phase basis). This would imply that keeping the caps operational is a relatively low priority.
The 1950s seemed to be the heyday of automated primary capacitor switching, with controllers activated by time, temperature, voltage, current, remote signals, alignment of the planets, etc. in any imaginable combination. That's probably still true for substation caps, but out on the lines around here, all I see is manual switching.
