alt Hacker NewsI assume you are talking beyond what (in the DIN rail world) type B/C/D breakers are meant to handle?
It's sort of a solved problem - the ones I'm aware of are things like LynTec sequenced panels built exactly for this, and Siemens' SENTRON semiconductor CBs where you can control then curve to your spec.
Convincing stakeholders though, is almost a job of its own.
These were all across-the-line, 3-phase 600v starters so there was no option to slowly start things up. Soft-starters would have been ideal but they are 5x the cost.