SK Telecom, South Korea's largest mobile carrier, and Dongyang ENP, the country's largest household solar inverter maker, have partnered on launching a service using a LoRa Internet of Things (IoT) network that reads the power status of household solar power stations.
The service, tentatively called Solar Power Management, will connect Dongyang-made inverters with SK Telecom's IoT converters to provide users with information on their real-time power usage via the LoRa network.
The service is aimed at enabling consumers to better manage their solar inverter usage. Currently, the only way they can check their usage is via the monthly bill.
Dongyang's collected data will be transferred to SK Telecom's energy management system server. The telco will analyse the data to later add a user-optimised management service.
SK Telecom, which launched its IoT-dedicated LoRa network in July last year, said the service has already been developed and is now being tested. Commercial deployment is expected near the end of July, the mobile carrier said.
It will cost 1,300 won (just over $1) per month for the next five years.
The number of household solar power stations are set to increase globally, with Samsung SDI also launching new energy storage system (ESS) products aimed at Europe in May.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/sk-telecom-launching-solar-power-usage-service-via-lora-iot/