Privacy in the Smart Grid and Multi Party Computations

The Smart Grid will enable users to monitor their energy consumption at a much lower level of granularity than the legacy grid. Such detailed information along with time-of-day billing can on the one hand allow consumers to control their energy consumption in order to minimize expenditure but on the other hand, if it falls into the wrong hands, can reveal insights into the daily activities of the user e.g., which appliance is used at what times, how many people use the facility and if/when they are away from home. An ideal resolution to this problem would protect the privacy of the users by ensuring that the profiles are revealed to no one other than the consumer but at the same time be used to calculate the billed amount at the end of the billing period by the supplier.

The role of Multi Party Computations in modern privacy protection schemes has been well established. Privacy is preserved by using algorithms that allow operation on sensitive data without it ever being revealed to any of the participating entities. Such a mechanism which operates without the need for a trusted third party shows promise when considered in the context of the consumer - distributor - supplier chain of communication where detailed energy consumption information is available only to the relevant party (consumer) yet at the same time allowing the distributor and supplier to carry out their billing activities.

The real challenge here is to come up with just such a mechanism and be able to perform the operations using the limited resources of a smart meter. That's what I am working on these days. Wish me luck :)