In July of last year, when the sweltering heat was at its peak, electricity bills for 190,000 households more than doubled compared to June, and in August, 2.91 million households paid high electricity bills due to the progressive rate system. Smart energy meters help users check their cumulative monthly electricity usage and estimated charges via a smartphone app, enabling them to adjust their household electricity consumption.

A notification text message is sent when the user reaches the daily target power usage set by the user, or when entering the second stage or higher of the progressive rate system (Stage 1: ~200kWh, Stage 2: ~400kWh, Stage 3: 400kWh) to receive progressive rates.

In addition to monthly cumulative usage and estimated charges, users can also check daily usage by time of day, daily usage for the past week, weekly usage for the past four weeks, and monthly usage for the past 12 months.

"We hope that customers who struggled with the sweltering heat and electricity bills last summer will be able to reduce their household energy costs through smart energy meters that have no contract or monthly usage fee burdens," said Cha In-hyeok, Head of the IoT Business Division at SK Telecom. "We will continue to do our best to enhance customer convenience with various IoT devices."