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STOMP - energy STOrage for smart Meter Privacy

To combat climate change a "smart grid" that streamlines the energy usage is needed. A smart grid is based on smart services and distributed renewable energy and, thus, the possibility for consumers to produce their own electricity (i.e., turning into "prosumers"). However, this relies on information technology, i.e. smart meters, to report the production and consumption of power. Unfortunately, a negative public opinion of smart meters exists and a general implementation is in the risk of being stopped due to worry that electricity suppliers or third parties will use the data to identify patterns of consumption.
In this project the possibility of improving the integrity using realistic energy storage systems to physically change the consumption patterns of the prosumer as well as the best suited measurement of integrity is investigated.

Energy STOrage for smart Meter Privacy - STOMP

Energilagring för integritet kring smarta elmätare - STOMP.

[Funded by Swedish Energy Agency - Energimyndigheten (SamspEL)]

NEW:

  1. (1/11 - 21) New paper published in the IET Smart Grids:
    Cong-Toan Pham ; Daniel Månsson "Effects of smart meter privacy protection management on the lifetime performance of 18,650 lithium-ion batteries" doi.org/10.1049/stg2.12055
    Abstract:
    Concerns over privacy leaks through real-time monitoring in smart meters (SMs) raise questions about how to effectively protect the user power consumption data. As one potential solution, energy storage systems have been suggested to physically manipulate SM readings to hide the true load pattern. Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are commonly utilised in the residential area in various applications such as solar and home batteries. Its use in a privacy-focussed operation has shown potential with reasonable system sizes in the range of commercially available products. However, batteries are subjected to ageing and the deterioration of performance over the course of time, which can limit the feasibility in such application. Hence, this work aims to investigate the ageing influence on LIBs' performance to deduce the life expectancy and how well privacy is protected over time. The study includes ageing tests with a specifically designed cycle life test procedure for the privacy protection scheme to extract relevant model parameters for the equivalent circuit battery model.

  2. (7/10 - 19) New paper published in the IEEE Access journal:
    Cong-Toan Pham ; Daniel Månsson "A Study on Realistic Energy Storage Systems for the Privacy of Smart Meter Readings of Residential Users", ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8861331
    Abstract:
    The introduction of smart meters sparked concerns about privacy breach through real-time monitoring of electric power consumption. Valuable private information about occupancy, behaviour, health, religion and wealth can be extracted from the user's power profile which urges measurements to protect the integrity of the user. One physical mitigation technique to assure privacy is explored using energy storage systems. Real energy storage technologies are limited in their energy capacities and power capabilities, which have to be appropriately sized to fulfil their role. This paper analyses and compares different energy storage technologies (li-ion, lead-acid, electric double layer capacitor and flywheel) for the protection of residential users by estimating the minimal required capacities and costs for both single and multiple user cases. The analysis is based on actual measured user data from the REDD data set. The results show that the integrity can be protected with reasonable capacities and investments ranging in the margin of market available products.

  3. (1/4 -19) A MSc thesis have been launched that will investigate the synergy for a user between the renewable energy production, load consumption and the energy storage with the constraint of hiding the user from privacy intrusions via access to the smart meter data. Also, this work will perform a survey into the acceptance of people of privacy enhancing technologies and the cost associated with it.
    *Update* (1/9-19), the work has been finished and the report can be found here: Energy storage systems for smart meter privacy: a study of public perceptions (pdf 2.1 MB) .
    Abstract
    Smart meters are a vital step for transitioning to a smart grid architecture. Studies have shown that it is possible to extract appliance usage information through non-intrusive load monitoring methods. This data can be used by third-parties for unwanted activities like targeted marketing, home invasion, etc. It is postulated that the data leakage will be minimum when the power flow from/to the grid is piecewise linear. To achieve linearity, the use of energy storage systems is investigated. Energy storage systems (ESS) are being increasingly used by customers having solar energy production. In this project, an algorithm for the energy management unit (EMU) to control the ESS is proposed which maintains piecewise linearity. Two types of users are considered for the study: 1. user who injects excess energy to the grid 2. user who does not (or is not allowed by law) to inject power to the grid. The effect of the algorithm on both users is studied. The minimum capacity of ESS for data leakage prevention is analysed for both cases. Data from four different households is used in different combinations to obtain the mean capacity required. Using this data, an equation is formulated for the minimum capacity of ESS required to maintain linearity in power flows. The second part of the study is to understand how people perceive smart meter privacy issues and how much they are willing to spend for mitigating privacy breaches. The survey is done in Sweden. Sweden was the first European country to have 100% smart meter roll-out. In 2020, the smart meters installed during the first roll-out will reach their economic lifespan. Hence, the country is preparing for a second-generation mass roll-out of smart meters. The perception of people regarding smart meters is identified from two perspectives. First, the consumers are directly surveyed for estimating their awareness of smart meter privacy problems and their willingness to invest in technologies that prevent such issues. Second, different stakeholders in smart metering are surveyed regarding their experience during first and second roll-out. The methods currently employed to safeguard consumer data is also explored during the second survey.
     

  4. (25/9-18) Current investigation studies how different energy sources, e.g., electricity and distributed heating, in a household with small scale renewable energy production could be used synergetically within an energy hub to lower the capacity needed to hide the consumption patterns.
     

  5. First results of the project will be presented at ISGT2018 Europe 21-25 October (2018) in Sarajevo ["Sizing Energy Storage Systems used to Improve Privacy from Smart Meter Readings for Users in Sweden", D. Månsson].

    The study is based on data for average Swedish households and actual households in Sweden. This is compared with data from an database on households in the US (REDD, The Reference Energy Disaggregation Data Set, http://redd.csail.mit.edu/). The paper investigates what capacity (in kWh) is needed for a household to hide the consumption from the utility or third party. It is found that, on average, for a normal single household about 6 kWh is required but if several household share a large household this drops quickly (to about 70%) with the number of households. If energy usage asciciated with distributed heating also should be hidden the capacity needed increases to about 11 kWh.