Smart metering: Keeping private matters private

Software developed at the Fraunhofer Institute of Technology for use on smart grid networks can let users of electricity monitor and control energy consumption in home appliances from a PC or a mobile phone.
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You can say one thing for smart meters: The concept of a utility or some other entity having an influence on homeowner electrical demand seems to have driven certain members of the blogosphere off the deep end. The Web is rife with conspiracy theories about sinister ulterior motives for putting such devices in the home. A lot of them have the tone of this one: “They will be able to shut your power OFF anytime they want. There will be rolling blackouts in your future caused only by your supplier wanting to conserve energy or re-route it to large corporations, and nothing else.” Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh has even gotten into the act, suggesting to one of his callers that smart meters might have been deployed as a way of trying to shame people into using less energy.

Then there is this gem from a UK blogger: “The EVIL SMART METER users (sic) the electric wires running around your house/ building upstairs and down ceilings and all, as an antenna that bombards you and your neighbor with high frequency MICROWAVE IRRADIATION (sic) continually, as it communicates with the internet, converting your home/office into a MICROWAVE COOKER switched on 24/7 and we pay for its installment.”

And some bloggers see the data coming out of smart meters as providing them with an unwelcome hobby. Says one, “Personally, I’d rather do something useful rather than pore over traces of energy consumption blips.”

Truth be told, it is not clear just how home consumers will interact with a smart grid. A lot will depend on how and to what degree consumers are comfortable interacting with metering functions. Then there’s the issue of security and privacy.

Obviously, the idea of letting utilities control appliances is controversial. A report released by Accenture, a consulting company, of more than 9,000 consumers in 17 countries worldwide, found about one-third saying they would be discouraged from using energy management programs such as smart metering if doing so gave utilities greater access to their personal energy use. The issue has attracted the attention of not just the DoE but also other governmental entities such as Canada’s Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Even the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in a comprehensive report on smart grid privacy, has compiled scenarios that consumers fear if their energy data got into the wrong hands. Consequently there is a move afoot to precisely define and minimize the kind of data sent back to utilities.

For their part, energy utilities are busy working on highly secure software and hardware approaches that protect sensitive data transmitted over the smart grid. At the urging of federal government, they created the National Electric Reliability Council (NERC), which promulgates critical infrastructure protection (CIP) protocols to secure sensitive energy data.

Numerous companies now offer advanced software and hardware products that meet NERC/CIP requirements. One example comes from NICE Systems Ltd. in Israel. It recently developed a situation management platform called the NICE Situator for electric utilities. It helps manage the physical security associated with NERC/CIP requirements.

If consumers are reticent to share energy consumption data, it may be because they don’t know much about how it would be used. A study by GE earlier this year found that only 4% of U.S. consumers had heard of the smart grid, let alone understand the ramifications of demand response. But utilities are moving slowly to better inform people about the benefits of the smart grid.

Indications are they had better get a move on. Some consumers who’ve tried a smart meter claim their only reward was a higher utility bill. This happened in the service area of northern California electric utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which commissioned an independent study of the claims. Its conclusion: The smart electric meters were accurate and higher bills probably occured because of a heat wave. Nevertheless, PG&E’s handling of the situmilation left much to be desired.

All of this has led to the recent formation of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC). Its founding members include consumer electronics and technology companies, retailers, consumer advocacy groups, and utilities. The SGCC aims to educate consumers about the grid’s benefits and share best practices for consumer engagement and empowerment.

In the same vein, the GridWise Alliance is another advocacy group that represents energy supply chain participants ranging from utilities to large tech companies to academia to venture capitalists to emerging technology companies. GridWise president Katherine Hamilton cautions, “We need to calculate investment over time for benefit over time, which is hard because we don’t know how consumers will interact with grid.” She sees the consumer as “the big kahuna” in the smart grid.

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