First Summer School March 2012, Itajuba, Brasil

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Abstract

The goal of this project is to develop solutions that increase the trustworthiness of the Smart Grid targeted to the situation in Brazil. Trustworthiness is of vital importance for a broad acceptance and large-scale deployment of this future technology. At present, establishing Smart Grids is an important issue in Brazil. In January 2011, the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency ANEEL established a schedule for the regulation of Smart Metering for consumer units. ANEEL has already developed a first stage of the proposed regulation and is currently in the second stage of the deployment process with the preparation of Regulatory Impact Analysis.

In view of these activities to implement the concept of Intelligent Grid in Brazil, it is of utmost importance to discuss topics related to privacy and trustworthiness as proposed in this project especially because these aspects are not considered in Brazil. The discussion needs to be very timely, since several items of discussion on the regulation deal with the definition of the functionality of the meters and the communication system and with the use of public communication protocols. The cooperation from partners from the productive sector and academic partners from both electrical engineering and computer science is beneficial for developing solutions that consider the different relevant perspectives and are targeted to the actual requirements of deploying Smart Grids in Brazil. Cooperation with GIZ programs will be utilized to increase the impact of project results.

Trustworthiness includes especially security, safety, and – not to forget – privacy issues. Serious privacy risks result from the fact that detailed information about the consumers' energy consumption is available in the Smart Grid. Such data may yield various information, e.g., about times when the consumer usually leaves the house or whether an electronic alarm system protects the house. Consumers are increasingly aware of such privacy risks and may be resistant to the deployment of Smart Grids. Consequently, methods for privacy protection are important to achieve consumer acceptance, which is needed for large-scale deployment – and thereby large-scale energy efficiency – of Smart Grids.

Project Partners

• TU Dresden, Systems Engineering Group and Privacy and Data Security Group
• Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Brazil
• Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Brazil
• SIEMENS Brazil
• Astra Serviços Ltda., Brazil

Participation by Students and PhDs

• Students are welcome to participate in the project by doing their Master Thesis, Diploma Thesis or Belegarbeit to a topic related to Trustworthy Smart Grids. During the work on the thesis, students are offered a 3-month internship at one of the partner universities.
• PhDs working on topics related to the project goals are offered a 3-month internship at one of the partner universities.

Contact

Systems Engineering Group:

• Prof. Dr. Christof Fetzer

Privacy and Data Security Group:

• Dr. Elke Franz
• PD Dr. Horst Lazarek
• Dr. Stefan Köpsell
• Dr. Sebastian Clauß

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