Joint Privacy-Cost Optimization in Smart Electricity Metering Systems
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Joint privacy-cost optimization is studied for a smart grid consumer, whose electricity consumption is monitored in almost real time by the utility provider (UP). It is assumed that an energy storage device, e.g., an electrical battery, is available to the consumer, which can be utilized both to achieve privacy and to reduce the energy cost by modifying the electricity consumption. Privacy is measured via the mean squared distance between the smart meter readings and a target load profile, while time-of-use pricing is considered to compute the electricity cost. The consumer also has the possibility to sell electricity back to the UP to further improve the privacy-cost trade-off. Two privacy-preserving energy management policies (EMPs) are proposed, which differ in the way the target load profile is characterized. Additionally, a simplified and more practical EMP, which optimizes the energy management less frequently, is considered. Numerical results are presented to compare the performances of these EMPs in terms of the privacy-cost trade-off they achieve, considering a number of privacy indicators.
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