"Why Did It Decrease?" Yongin City Checks Electricity Usage to Prevent Crisis in Single-Person Households

Response to Sharp Decline in Electricity and Telecom Data Usage
Service Coverage Expanded from 120 to 200 Households

"Oh, the electricity usage from the previous day is almost none."

Last month, an employee at an administrative welfare center in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do received a report from the control center that a solitary man had almost no electricity usage the previous day, prompting a welfare check call, but he did not answer the phone. The employee visited the man's home in person and found him collapsed in the living room, then urgently transported him to the hospital.

Yongin City announced on the 19th that it will expand the "AI Anbu Dundeun" service, which detects crisis signals and prevents accidents for single-person households at high risk of isolation without social safety net protection, from the current 120 people to 200 people.

In July, Yongin City signed a business agreement with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), SK Telecom, and Happy Connect to provide this service to 120 vulnerable households. KEPCO provides electricity usage data of the target households, SK Telecom provides communication data usage history, and Happy Connect, which operates the control center, checks on households where abnormal signals are detected.

If there is no change in electricity usage within 24 hours, a welfare check call is made, and if the target person does not answer, the control center verifies again. If there is still no response, an employee from the local administrative welfare center is dispatched to the site to directly check for abnormalities.

During the trial service period, a total of 90 risk signals were detected, and among them, 5 cases did not respond to calls, so employees were dispatched in person to confirm safety, the city reported.

Starting next month, if vulnerable households with detected abnormal signals do not respond to welfare check calls, control center staff will be dispatched to the site to assess the situation not only during weekday daytime but also at night and on holidays.

The city plans to provide the service after confirming the willingness to participate from crisis households discovered through surveys by the city and eup/myeon/dong administrative welfare centers and reports from residents.

A Yongin City official said, "The AI Anbu Dundeun service is helping detect and prevent accident risks for single-person households, so we decided to expand the service starting next month. We will strive to build a dense safety net that can discover and support crisis households."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.