An area of particular concern is the design of electrical switchgear within embedded generation systems. Currently, the electrical design for embedded generation installations are prepared without the use of any specialist design tools, software based or otherwise. This situation renders the switchgear design process reliant upon bespoke, ill-defined and un-optimised methods. Such practices are labour intensive, error prone and require substantial expertise in all aspects of power protection and distribution systems. This thesis investigates the use of object oriented programming to develop a software tool that assists with the complete design and specification of embedded generation switchgear. By capturing the design rationale in such a tool, fast, accurate and checked switchgear designs may be produced by developers without extensive previous switchgear design experience. The thesis describes how the design process for switchgear may be rationalised based upon design methodology, taking account of legal and regulatory codes of practice, such as G59. A complete and general review of artificially intelligent techniques and programming paradigms considered suitable for capturing design reasoning are presented. All aspects of the switchgear design are modelled, including protection and instrumentation equipment, auxiliary power supplies and sundry components. Internal component section, connection and loading is automated ensuring that a complete, fully specified switchgear installation is produced. The techniques investigated illustrate that cooperating, interacting networks of software objects may be used to assist and perform switchgear design. The techniques presented could be readily adapted for use in other, non-related design domains, within which complex interdependent architectures and relationships exist.