POSTER: Reliable and efficient protection of consumer privacy in advanced metering infrastructure

Abstract

We are investigating a novel approach towards reliable and efficient protection of consumer privacy in the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). In the smart grid, one of the main concerns of consumers is associated with the usage of the smart meters and how utility companies handle energy consumption data, which can potentially reveal sensitive and private information about consumers. Current solutions provide privacy-preserving protocols using zero knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption, which work on aggregated smart meter data. There is still lack of an integrated solution that enables privacy preservation with access to fine-grained data such that opportunities of making energy consumption more efficient are not sacrificed. Such access will also enable other forms of advanced intelligent analysis like energy fraud detection. In this regard, we propose a three-tier privacy preservation model that includes secure communication among smart meters, utility company, and a Trusted Third Party (TTP) using Certificateless Public Key Encryption and AES 128. It is a flexible framework allowing protection of consumer privacy such that only consumers can securely retrieve their fine-grained readings through the TTP’s web-portal. This protocol supports dynamic rate utilization as well as data mining for advanced analysis. In addition, the proposed secure framework satisfies computational resource limitations in the Advanced Metering Infrastructure and provides a scalable solution for efficient consumer privacy-preserving billing.