Case study on Korea Electronic Power Corporation (KEPCO) 's private 5G network deployment in Korea: Substation

May 08, 2023 | By Harrison J. Son (son@netmanias.com)

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Korea Electric Power Corporation (Energy)

KEPCO has deployed a private 5G network at Shin-Jungbu substation and headquarters in December 2022 for predictive maintenance

KEPCO's need for a private 5G network

Preventing accidents in advance is important due to the aging of power facilities in substations:

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has more than 900 substations in Korea, and most of them are aging, so it is necessary to take preventive measures against accidents.

In the event of a substation equipment (gas insulated switchgears, main transformers) failure, a large-scale power outage would occur, causing serious damage (for example, In 2021, a fire at KEPCO's Daejeon substation caused a power outage of 67,000 households).

In December 2022, KEPCO introduced IoT sensors, quadruped robots, AI, and a private 5G network to Shin-Jungbu substation to establish a smart equipment management system that monitors substation equipment in real time and predicts and prevents failures through AI analysis.

<Shin-Jungbu Substation of KEPCO>

Private 5G network built by KEPCO

Network architecture(5G core control plane sharing type): deploy 5G core control plane at KEPCO headquarters and install 5G RAN and UPF at Shin-Jungbu substation
Private 5G frequency: 4.7GHz, 28GHz
Private 5G vendor: Samsung Electronics

KEPCO's Private 5G applications

① IoT-based predictive maintenance: A service that detects potential defects in real-time by monitoring, collecting, and analyzing fault signals and operating conditions generated inside transformers and GIS via multiple sensors.

② Maintenance inspection using quadruped robots

Unmanned human inspection using robots and AI
Using a quadruped robot and a camera, video of field equipment is captured and sent to a video analytics server through a private 5G network, where the status value is read by AI.
Replacing existing human inspections (work efficiency)
Prevent safety accidents by unmanning substations