Privacy-Cost Trade-offs in Smart Electricity Metering Systems

Abstract: Trade-offs between privacy and cost are studied for a smart grid consumer, whose electricity consumption is monitored in almost real time by the utility provider (UP) through smart meter (SM) readings. It is assumed that an electrical battery is available to the consumer, which can be utilized both to achieve privacy and to reduce the energy cost by demand shaping. Privacy is measured via the mean squared distance between the SM readings and a target load profile, while time-of-use (ToU) pricing is considered to compute the cost incurred. The consumer can also sell electricity back to the UP to further improve the privacy-cost trade-off. Two privacy-preserving energy management policies (EMPs) are proposed, which differ in the way the target load profile is characterized. A more practical EMP, which optimizes the energy management less frequently, is also considered. Numerical results are presented to compare the privacy-cost trade-off of these EMPs, considering various privacy indicators.