Amsterdam, Netherlands and Essen, Germany --- (METERING.COM) --- October 12, 2012 - Dutch network provider Alliander, together with the European Network for Cyber Security (ENCS) and Elster, are to provide a proof-of-concept pilot project to demonstrate advanced privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) for smart metering networks.

Responsible for the regional distribution of electricity and gas to 3.3 million customers in the Netherlands, Alliander is currently developing and implementing smart metering and smart grid infrastructures. Elster will be supplying an end-to-end, market-ready solution for the pilot, which forms part of Alliander’s small scale smart meter rollout that commenced in the first half of 2012.
 
Elster will implement the PET protocols on the AS300 multi-utility smart electricity meter and the EnergyICT EIServer, a meter management head-end solution, for the pilot. The PET protocols use cryptographic methods optimized specifically for aggregating data, which means any information collected from smart meters is unusable until aggregated with measurements from other meters. This will allow Alliander to meet, and even exceed, the strict privacy requirements mandated in the Netherlands, while simultaneously being able to perform advanced grid management and optimization based on the metering data.
 
“The transition to a clean energy economy requires a smarter grid and maintaining consumer trust and confidence with respect to privacy and security concerns is central to our smart meter and smart grid program,” says Richard de Vries, manager, Asset Innovation and Information at Alliander.
 
The aim of the pilot is to validate the applicability of PETs for smart metering and smart grid, to determine to what extent this new technology is beneficial to Alliander and other grid companies and what needs to be adapted to maximize its benefit.