A privacy-preserving Concept for Smart Grids

The smart grid is seen as the greatest technological invention — in the context of energy supply — since the grid connection of millions of households. Smart metering, as the enabling technology for the future grid, attracts attention of industry, politics, and the scientific community. As smart meters are spreading into more and more households, electricity customers are directly affected by the technology. At the same time, critical voices accuse smart metering of violating customers’ privacy. Personal data are collected, allowing electricity service providers a monitoring of customers’ habits. In this paper, we propose a solution that provides anonymity for customers towards their ESP. At the same time, we do not limit the functionality that the ESP is asking for, especially the periodic reporting of customers’ current electricity consumption values. Moreover, our concept allows for the ESP to build trust in the software that is executed within their customers’ smart meters.