Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities

Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and protocols.Comment: To be published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

An improved privacy solution for the smart grid

Recent advances in hardware, software, computing, and communication technologies have enabled the design and deployment of a smarter, interactive, dynamic 21st cen-tury electrical grid, also known as the smart grid. The bi-directional ow of information between the customer premise and the utility provider opens up several privacy challenges that must beaddressed. We describe possi-ble man-in-the-middle attacks against one (proposed by Marmol et al.) of the recently propsed privacy solu-tions for the smart grid environment. To address this vulnerability, we propose an improved privacy solution. We demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of our so-lution through a detailed security analysis

Security assessment of the smart grid : a review focusing on the NAN architecture

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive review on the security aspect of the smart grid communication network. The paper focus on the Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) cybersecurity and it laid emphasis on how the NAN architecture is such an attractive target to intruders and attackers. The paper aims at summarizing recent research efforts on some of the attacks and the various techniques employed in tackling them as they were discussed in recent literatures and research works. Furthermore, the paper presents a detailed review on the smart grid communication layers, wireless technology standards, networks and the security challenges the grid is currently facing. The work concludes by explaining current and future directions NAN communication security could consider in terms of data privacy measures. The data privacy measures are discussed in terms of prevention and detection techniques

Secure Communication Architecture for Dynamic Energy Management in Smart Grid

open access articleSmart grid takes advantage of communication technologies for efficient energy management and utilization. It entails sacrifice from consumers in terms of reducing load during peak hours by using a dynamic energy pricing model. To enable an active participation of consumers in load management, the concept of home energy gateway (HEG) has recently been proposed in the literature. However, the HEG concept is rather new, and the literature still lacks to address challenges related to data representation, seamless discovery, interoperability, security, and privacy. This paper presents the design of a communication framework that effectively copes with the interoperability and integration challenges between devices from different manufacturers. The proposed communication framework offers seamless auto-discovery and zero- con figuration-based networking between heterogeneous devices at consumer sites. It uses elliptic-curve-based security mechanism for protecting consumers' privacy and providing the best possible shield against different types of cyberattacks. Experiments in real networking environment validated that the proposed communication framework is lightweight, secure, portable with low-bandwidth requirement, and flexible to be adopted for dynamic energy management in smart grid

Secure and energy-efficient multicast routing in smart grids

A smart grid is a power system that uses information and communication technology to operate, monitor, and control data flows between the power generating source and the end user. It aims at high efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of the electricity supply process that is provided by the utility centre and is distributed from generation stations to clients. To this end, energy-efficient multicast communication is an important requirement to serve a group of residents in a neighbourhood. However, the multicast routing introduces new challenges in terms of secure operation of the smart grid and user privacy. In this paper, after having analysed the security threats for multicast-enabled smart grids, we propose a novel multicast routing protocol that is both sufficiently secure and energy efficient.We also evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol by means of computer simulations, in terms of its energy-efficient operation

Privacy Enforcement in a Cost-Effective Smart Grid

In this technical report we present the current state of the research conducted during the first part of the PhD period. The PhD thesis “Privacy Enforcement in a Cost-Effective Smart Grid” focuses on ensuring privacy when generating market for energy service providers that develop web services for the residential domain in the envisaged smart grid. The PhD project is funded and associated to the EU project “Energy Demand Aware Open Services for Smart Grid Intelligent Automation” (SmartHG) and therefore introduces the project on a system-level. Based on this, we present some of the integration, security and privacy challenges that emerge when designing a system architecture and infrastructure. The resulting architecture is a consumer-centric and agent-based design and uses open Internet-based communication protocols for enabling interoperability while being cost-effective. Finally, the PhD report presentthe envisaged future work and publications that will lead to completion of the PhD study

An efficient data aggregation scheme for privacy-friendly dynamic pricing-based billing and demand-response management in smart grids

Smart grids take advantage of information and communication technologies to achieve energy efficiency, automation and reliability. These systems allow two-way communications and power flow between the grid and consumers. However, these bidirectional communications introduce several security and privacy threats to consumers. One of the open challenges in this context is user privacy when smart meters are used to capture fine-grained energy usage information. Although considerable research has been carried out in this direction, most of the existing solutions invariably introduce computational complexity and overhead, which makes them infeasible for resource constrained smart meters. In this paper, we propose a privacy-friendly and efficient data aggregation scheme (EDAS) for dynamic pricing based billing and demand-response management in smart grids. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to address privacy in the context of billing under dynamic electricity pricing. Security and performance analyses show that the proposed scheme offers better privacy protection for electric meter reading aggregation and computational efficiency, as compared to existing schemes

Consumer Adoption Challenges To The Smart Grid

The smart grid represents the next significant evolution of the power infrastructure with many enhancements and challenges. This paper provides a qualitative review of the key consumer adoption challenges of the smart grid. This literature review takes disparate pieces of work and identifies strategic research focal areas. Through existing research and media documents, it identifies the primary consumer adoption challenges as privacy, Radio Frequency (RF) safety, and power rate increases. It also provides a review of each adoption challenge. The review is applied to the Canadian perspective drawing from smart grid experiences across North America. The review demonstrates that each of the challenge areas has a negative impact on the adoption and support of the smart grid.This paper recommends further in-depth research be conducted in the following areas: testing each of the consumer adoption challengesprivacy, RF Safety, and rate increasesseparately with quantitative measures; testing the willingness to accept a power infrastructure with the security and stability level of a bank; and testing the impact that proactively educating the public would have on the smart grid adoption

A Survey on Cryptography Key Management Schemes for Smart Grid

A Smart grid is a modern electricity delivery system. It is an integration of energy systems and other necessary elements including traditional upgrades and new grid technologies with renewable generation and increased consumer storage. It uses information and communication technology (ICT) to operate, monitor and control data between the generation source and the end user. Smart grids have duplex power flow and communication to achieve high efficiency, reliability, environmental, economics, security and safety standards. However, along with unique facilities, smart grids face security challenges such as access control, connectivity, fault tolerance, privacy, and other security issues. Cyber-attacks, in the recent past, on critical infrastructure including smart grids have highlighted security as a major requirement for smart grids. Therefore, cryptography and key management are necessary for smart grids to become secure and realizable. Key management schemes are processes of key organizational frameworks, distribution, generation, refresh and key storage policies. Currently, several secure schemes, related to key management for smart grid have been proposed to achieve end-to-end secure communication. This paper presents a comprehensive survey and discussion on the current state of the key management of smart grids