This paper presents the commonly used approaches to feeder automation (FA) and introduces a practical approach to implementing feeder automation that is virtually a simple extension of the substation automation by covering the feeders. FA is usually implemented either based on a centralized approach or a distributed approach. Normally a distributed approach is simple and flexible. It can be implemented in a small scale but can only provide limited FA functions. Instead, a centralized approach is capable of providing complete FA functions but requires large scale implementation. The approach presented in this paper is of the advantages of both the distributed solutions and the centralized solutions. It can achieve all FA objectives without requiring additional communication and hardware facilities compared to the automated distributed solutions, e.g., the IntelliTeam approach