A Study on Realistic Energy Storage Systems for the Privacy of Smart Meter Readings of Residential Users

The introduction of smart meters sparked concerns about privacy breach through real-time monitoring of electric power consumption. Valuable private information about occupancy, behaviour, health, religion and wealth can be extracted from the user’s power profile which urges measurements to protect the integrity of the user. One physical mitigation technique to assure privacy is explored using energy storage systems. Real energy storage technologies are limited in their energy capacities and power capabilities, which have to be appropriately sized to fulfil their role. This paper analyses and compares different energy storage technologies (li-ion, lead-acid, electric double layer capacitor and flywheel) for the protection of residential users by estimating the minimal required capacities and costs for both single and multiple user cases. The analysis is based on actual measured user data from the REDD data set. The results show that the integrity can be protected with reasonable capacities and investments ranging in the margin of market available products.