Secure and compromise-resilient architecture for advanced metering infrastructure

Abstract

In recent years, the Smart Grid has grown to be the solution for future electrical energy that promises to avoid blackouts as well as to be energy efficient, environmentally and customer-friendly. In Smart Grid, the customer-friendly applications are a key element that provides the feature for recognizing the active expenditure of current energy via an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) subsystem. In fact, the smart meter, as a major part of AMI that is installed in residences, which provides more details about a consumer‟s usage. The smart meter measures hour-by-hour usage of a house, and then instantly transmits the record to the utility via two-way communications, unlike the previous electrical system that collects all usage monthly. However, the live measurement of the usage creates a potential privacy leak since each electrical usage records the behaviour of consumers in the home. Therefore, any communication channel between customers and utility should have some sort of confidentiality which protects consumer privacy. In reality, smart meters are generally located in an insecure area of the house (outside), therefore anyone can potentially tamper with the device, noting the fact that it is low-end device. As a result, there is a great possibility of compromising the smart meter, resulting in disclosure of consumer usage. Actually, the nature of a smart meter, and the cost constraints, create a challenge to secure the network. Therefore, the dual motivating problems are the protection of consumer privacy as well as achieving cost efficiency. In this research, we propose a new secure and compromise resilient architecture that continues two major components: a smart meters compromise attack detection scheme and a secure usage reporting protocol. Firstly, the smart meters compromise attack detection scheme improves the security of the smart meter, preventing an adversary from compromising the smart meter. Secondly, the secure usage reporting protocol improves the security of communication between the smart meter and the utility, preventing an adversary from identifying each household's usage reported by smart meters.