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| Kim Moo-hwan, EVP and the head of the green investment center at SK Inc., left, poses with Ryan Kennedy, CEO of Atom Power, center, and Kang Dong-soo, EVP of platform and marketing at SK Energy, after signing an agreement to acquire the management rights of Atom Power at the SK Serin building in Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of SK Inc. |
By Kim Hyun-bin
SK Inc. and SK Energy announced they will acquire the management rights of Atom Power, an American energy solution company, for $150 million, the company said, Thursday.
"Through the acquisition of Atom Power, we will secure the core technology of the energy solution business and use it as a stepping stone to implement an energy solution platform and discover various business opportunities," an SK Inc. official said.
Atom Power, established in 2014, has developed solid state circuit breaker (SSCB) technology and is focused on the energy solution business and electric vehicle (EV) charging business in the U.S.
Unlike general circuit breakers that only block the current when a power overload occurs, it also serves to measure and collect power usage data as an intermediate gateway for each generation of power utilizing current sensors and software developed by Atom Power.
The data collected by Atom Power's circuit breaker are numerous and diverse, such as its power usage, solar power generation, EV charging and energy storage (ESS) charging/discharging. The big data on power collected by the circuit breaker can be used to predict power generation and consumption patterns.
Atom Power's circuit breaker can also be used for EV chargers. The installation cost, area and management cost can all be greatly reduced. This is because, unlike the existing method that requires an individual circuit breaker per charger, it can be constructed in a structure in which several small circuit breakers are integrated into one central panel.
Atom Power's circuit breakers are the only ones in this field to obtain the UL Certification for the performance and safety of American products.
