Cyclic Homomorphic Encryption Aggregation (CHEA)—A Novel Approach to Data Aggregation in the Smart Grid

Daniel Sousa-Dias, Daniel Amyot (), Ashkan Rahimi-Kian, Masoud Bashari and John Mylopoulos
Additional contact information
Daniel Sousa-Dias: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
Daniel Amyot: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
Ashkan Rahimi-Kian: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
Masoud Bashari: IEMS Solution Ltd., Communitech, Kitchener, ON N2G 1H6, Canada
John Mylopoulos: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: The transactive energy market is an emerging development in energy economics built on advanced metering infrastructure. Data generated in this context is often required for market operations, while also being privacy sensitive. This dual concern has necessitated the development of various methods of obfuscation in order to maintain privacy while still facilitating operations. While data aggregation is a common approach in this context, many of the existing aggregation methods rely on additional network components or lack flexibility. In this paper, we introduce Cyclic Homomorphic Encryption Aggregation (CHEA), a secure aggregation protocol that eliminates the need for additional network components or complicated key distribution schemes, while providing additional capabilities compared to similar protocols. We validate our scheme with formal security analysis as well as a software simulation of a transactive energy network running the scheme. Results indicate that CHEA performs well in comparison to similar works, with minimal communication overheads. Additionally, CHEA retains all standard security properties held by other aggregation schemes, while improving flexibility and reducing infrastructural requirements. Our scheme operates on similar assumptions as other works, but current smart metering hardware lags in terms of processing power, making the scheme infeasible on the current generation of hardware. However, these capabilities should quickly advance to an accommodating state. With this in mind, and given the results, we believe CHEA is a strong candidate for aggregating transactive energy data.

Keywords: aggregation; homomorphic encryption; smart grid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/878/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/878/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:878-:d:1338635

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().