I IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING IN 2013, SWITZERLAND AND ITALY started using wide area monitoring (WAM) systems as an additional tool for power-system operation and analysis. One of the driving forces behind this was the need for the comprehensive observation of highly loaded transmission corridors. Another important target was setting up a systemwide stability-monitoring tool with respect to interarea oscillations. During the last two major expansion stages of the continental European (CE) power system (in 2004, with the resynchronization of the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity's first and second zone, and in 2010, with the connection of Turkey) WAM systems have delivered key measurements that have been used to prepare, observe, and improve an adequate dynamic system behavior. Currently, local applications as well as wide area approaches are in use in a (more or less) meshed Monitoring Continental Europe By Walter Sattinger and Giorgio Giannuzzi An Overview of WAM Systems Used in Italy and Switzerland Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2015.2431215 Date of publication: 18 August 2015 september/october 2015 1540-7977/15©2015IEEE ieee power & energy magazine 41