The Challenges of Privacy and Access Control as Key Perspectives for the Future Electric Smart Grid

The Electric Smart Grid (ESG) is referred to as the next generation electricity power network. The ESG is an intelligent critical infrastructure subject to various security vulnerabilities and especially data privacy breaches. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the latest privacy-preserving mechanisms and policies in the ESG, while promoting the employment of modern access control techniques towards preventing personal data disclosure, affecting both utility companies and consumers. Efficient categorization is provided regarding the proposed privacy preserving methods and characteristics, while focus is also given on the use of the Blockchain technology and the Multi Authority Access Control paradigm in the ESG infrastructure. The study concludes with a discussion upon privacy and access control challenges, as well as future work concerning the ESG.