P_PAKA: Privacy preserving authenticated key agreement protocol in smart grid

Abstract

The current power grid is changing into a network of interoperating intelligent devices to form a smart grid. One of the technologies enabled by the bi-directional communication of the grid is demand response (DR), which allows regulation of energy loads by efficiently shifting consumer power demand of non-critical appliances from on-peak to off-peak with price incentives for compliance. However, security and privacy of communications between entities are the major constraining factors to the adoption of smart grid applications. Therefore, this paper proposes a privacy preserving authenticated key agreement protocol (P_PAKA) in smart grid that addresses the privacy issues for DR communications. We demonstrate the provision of desirable security features and requirements of confidentiality, integrity and availability in DR with unlinkability.