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 grid in China first commercially available electric vehicle charging station, the Caoxi Electrical Vehicle Charging Station. As of 2010, 76 electric vehicle charging stations have been built in 41 Chinese cities. Continued investment in electric car infrastructure reflects the country's goal of having 500,000 electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles on the road by 2015 and 5 million by 2020. In September 2011, SGCC announced plans to invest $250 billion in electric power infrastructure upgrades over the next five years, of which $45 billion is earmarked for smart grid technologies. Another $240 billion between 2016 and 2020 will be added to complete the smart