Secure distributed data aggregation in the automatic metering infrastructure of smart grids

Abstract

The widespread deployment of Automatic Metering Infrastructures in Smart Grid scenarios rises great concerns about privacy preservation of user-related data, from which detailed information about customer's habits and behaviours can be deduced. Therefore, the users' individual measurements should be aggregated before being provided to External Entities such as utilities, grid managers and third parties. This paper proposes a security architecture for distributed aggregation of smart metering data relying on Gateways placed at the customers' premises, which collect the data generated by local Meters and provide communication and cryptographic capabilities. We propose a secure communication protocol based on multiparty computation aimed at preventing Gateways and External Entities from inferring information about individual data. The routing of information flows can be centralized or it can be performed in a distributed fashion using a protocol similar to Chord.