PRIVATUS: Wallet-friendly privacy protection for smart meters

Abstract

In smart power grids, a smart meter placed at a consumerend point reports fine-grained usage information to utility providers. Based on this information, the providers can perform demand prediction and set on-demand pricing. However, this also threatens user privacy, since users' specific activity or behavior patterns can be deduced from the finely granular meter readings. To resolve this issue, we design Privatus, a privacy-protection mechanism that uses a rechargeable battery. In Privatus, the meter reading reported to the utility is probabilistically independent of the actual usage at any given time instant. Privatus also considerably reduces the correlation between the meter readings and the actual usage pattern over time windows. Further, using stochastic dynamic programming, Privatus charges/discharges the battery in the optimal way to maximize savings in the energy cost, given prior knowledge of time periods for the various price zones. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.