An intelligent electronic device (IED) may provide point on wave switching. The IED may receive a control operation request, and determine when to issue a control command to cause a switch to change positions. The actuation of the switch may occur at a target point on an alternating current. An IED may have a processor that is too slow to implement a switch when a desired point on an alternating current first occurs. Accordingly, some embodiments may compensate for the processing speed of an IED by determining a number of processor cycles needed (in advance) to issue a control command so that the resulting action results in the desired point on wave open or close.