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Smart Meter Data Privacy

Smart grids (SGs) promise to deliver dramatic improvements compared to traditional power grids thanks primarily to the large amount of data being exchanged and processed within the grid, which enables the grid to be monitored more accurately and at a much faster pace. The smart meter (SM) is one of the key devices that enable the SG concept by monitoring a household's electricity consumption and reporting it to the utility provider (UP), i.e., the entity that sells energy to customers, or to the distribution system operator (DSO), i.e., the entity that operates and manages the grid, with high accuracy and at a much faster pace compared to traditional meters. However, the very availability of rich and high-frequency household electricity consumption data, which enables a very efficient power grid management, also opens up unprecedented challenges on data security and privacy. To counter these threats, it is necessary to develop techniques that keep SM data private, and, for this reason, SM privacy has become a very active research area. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the most significant privacy-preserving techniques for SM data, highlighting their main benefits and disadvantages.