Protect Consumer Privacy from Load Monitoring

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

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, ----

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

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

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%

If the SOC is very low and the real time usage is larger than Kss 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

Evaluation Setup

Feature reduction results