Protect Consumer Privacy from Load Monitoring

1. Protect Consumer Privacy from Load Monitoring

2. The smart metering technique allows users and power companies to get more accurate power usage data • Balanced generation and consumption • Save money (both company and end users) • More environment friendly

3. The problem: disclosure of the users’ privacy • We can actually generate the fingerprint of the power consumption of different devices • New smart meter allows you to sample the power usage each second • Match the usage changes to the signatures of the devices • What you are using, whether or not you are at home, noise level, ----

6. How can we hide the information: • Non-intrusive load leveling • Add a battery to the circuit • Try to maintain a flat level of usage • When consumption is low, charge • When consumption is high, discharge

7. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? • If you have a battery with really huge capacity, then yes • But: • Complexity • Cost • Dynamics • Properties of the battery

8. Goals • Make the power usage at about Kss • The battery is running at about 50% -- 80% full • Never lower than 20% • Not higher than 90%

9. If the battery’s SOC is high, and the real time usage is smaller than Kss • You are setting the Kss too high (so the battery is always charging) • Need to lower the target • If the SOC is very low and the real time usage is larger than Kss • Setting the Kss too low (the battery is always discharging) • Need to increase the value

10. Evaluation Setup

13. Feature reduction results