A Review of Privacy-preserving and Efficient Data Collection and Aggregation in Smart Grids

The smart grid fuses the traditional electrical power grid with smart technology to allow for a more distributed, bidirectional flow of communication, data, and electricity. Its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) of smart meters (SMs) and sensors can efficiently collect data from end users and send it to utility companies. It also allows for near-instantaneous detection of problems in the grid so there can be a quick recourse to fix them. The strength of the SMs is that they can provide reports showing electrical usage to both consumers and utility companies, allowing users to act accordingly to decrease their bill while allowing utility companies to accurately manage billing by reviewing near real-time supply and demand. This paper will explore the specific issues that arise in the smart grid with respect to aggregating consumers’ data and sending it to utility companies and will also propose solutions to these issues. The two primary solutions in this paper focus on the use of homomorphic encryption and a lightweight data aggregation scheme, which decrease computational costs, improve scalability, and improve security —all while simultaneously preserving the customer’s privacy. Finally, a thorough comparison of the existing works is presented along with future research directions that will serve to further enhance the security levels of future AMI smart metering systems.