Under a business agreement for technology development with domestic partners, SK Telecom, a leading mobile carrier in South Korea, will use artificial intelligence and new technologies to predict the amount of renewable energy generation and power demand scattered in each region and create optimized virtual power plants.
A virtual power plant (VPP) harnesses scattered renewable energy power generation to a network for maximum efficiency using new technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, internet of things, and renewable energy generation. It can reduce the load on existing electricity grids during peak load times. The generated electricity can be traded.
SK Telecom (SKT) will develop technologies in the areas of renewable energy generation and electric vehicle demand prediction, optimal energy storage system (ESS) control, and energy management system-based power transactions. "We will promote cooperation with various partners based on SKT's ICT technology capabilities to solve future energy problems," SKT's future R&D manager Lee Jong-min said in a statement on September 28.
The use of AI technology is essential to properly build and operate virtual power plants because AI increases the accuracy of predicting the amount of power generation of renewable energy power generation, which is not constant in production, or predicting customers' power demand. When managing power through an energy storage system, it is possible to optimize charging and discharging with an artificial intelligence algorithm.
60Hertz, an energy IT social venture which operates a virtual power plant, will build a technology that predicts the amount of solar power generation and a map of solar power generation.
Soft Berry, a software company that operates an electric vehicle charging information app, will develop a technology that predicts power consumption and applies it to virtual power plant operations by using data such as electric vehicle operations and charging patterns. The government-supported Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) is in charge of optimizing energy storage systems and studying virtual power plant operation technology.
By Lim Chang-won
