Safety vs Privacy: Findings From a Smart Grid Digitalization Project in Norway

The installation of smart electricity meters in every household in Norway is required by law. As a result, Norway has an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which forms part of the Smart Grid. Introducing such an IoT device in every household opens several opportunities additional to the initially intended measurement and logging of power consumption. One option that smart metering gives is to monitor for earth faults in electrical systems in individual households. This paper reports on the findings of a case study on a pilot digitalization project where a power grid company leveraged this new metering technology to enhance human safety and prevent damage to property, but in doing so, raised concerns regarding its compliance to privacy legislation. As the pilot project comes to an end, it is assessed as having had limited success, even though the piloted technological solution has been proven to be entirely successful. This is because the project has not managed to result in enhanced homeowner's safety on one hand and some privacy concerns have been raised on the other. Team educational diversity and knowledge diversity have been identified as reasons for the limited success.