The Korea Energy Agency has developed an AI (artificial intelligence)-based distribution board technology that improves building energy efficiency by approximately 15% and transferred it to domestic companies.
The Energy Agency announced on the 10th that a research team led by Kim Jong-hoon, chief researcher of the Energy ICT Research Division, transferred the intelligent distribution board technology 'NeuroPanel' to Seondo Electric, a specialized manufacturer of power equipment.
A distribution board is a facility that distributes electricity entering a building to individual circuits such as lighting, heating and cooling, and outlets. By measuring the facility, one can confirm where and how much electricity is being used inside the building.
However, installing meters in dozens of circuits inside a distribution board requires significant costs. It is also not easy for non-professional managers to identify the purpose of each circuit.
The NeuroPanel developed by the research team is a small AI device installed in distribution boards. Its greatest advantage is 'load separation.' It separates and reads usage amounts for each sub-circuit using power data from the main breaker. This is similar to distinguishing individual instrument sounds in an ensemble where multiple instruments are playing together. Through this, meter installation costs can be significantly reduced.
It also automatically recognizes the energy purpose of each circuit. The function predicts future usage patterns and determines importance levels, then informs managers which points can be turned off. It is an AI model that reduces power consumption for inference by approximately 54% compared to general neural networks, making it operable even on small devices.
The research team evaluated the applicability of the technology using operational data collected over one year from two buildings at the Energy Agency's main campus. Analysis revealed energy savings of about 15% compared to existing facilities.
Seondo Electric, which received the technology transfer, plans to review the possibility of commercializing an intelligent distribution board based on the NeuroPanel together with the research team in the future.
Chief researcher Kim stated, "If distribution boards that simply distribute electricity evolve into intelligent facilities that manage energy on their own, they can contribute to building energy savings, achieving carbon neutrality, and the AI transformation of Korea's power equipment industry."
in TECH
