Smart grids in South Korea help the country use more renewable energy sources and cut overall energy consumption." The "smart" in a grid is achieved through an installed software rather than hardware, banking more on the element of intelligence for more consistent upgrades, patterns learning, and timely response to new technologies. The South Korean smart grids include the following components: Internet in South Korea is more robust and developed than in almost any other country, with gigabit wired service being common even in fairly rural areas. Accordingly, Korean initiatives in smart grid and Internet of things largely take reliable backhaul connectivity for granted. The country's
Smart meter homes. This was well behind schedule to hit the government’s target to have 50 million in place by 2020. As of August 2018, 11 million SMETS1 devices were functioning normally, with 637,000 in "dumb" mode, according to the government. 42 million remained to be installed by the 2020 deadline. Until 2018, the vast majority of smart meters being installed were "first generation" SMETS1 types. If a user of one of these meters switches electricity supplier, the meter’s smart functions are lost, and it must be read manually. SMETS2 meters allow easy switching and better remote reading, but only 450 had