Smart Metering Privacy

["semi.jons" <semi.jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Recently I met a guy working with a home energy metering company. 
Like everyone else they have a device with strap on sensor and remote
display for the house.  Householders are also able to upload their data to
a central site to allow remote viewing and long term charting etc.  Nothing
unique there, but what I did find interesting was the data mining they
performed on behalf of the electricity companies.  By sampling every few
seconds they are able to identify not only usage patterns in detail but
also the make/model used for appliances with a strong signature e.g.
kettles / vacuum cleaner and also estimate the amount of water being boiled
at a time.  The idea is that they can use this information to provide
recommendations about electricity usage to aid the householder.  An
alternative interpretation would be they are trying to get their customers
to use electricity that is cheaper to supply by discouraging peak time
usage.  This could be linked to tariff too as if proved a
ccurate this type of information could penalise a cuppa during the ad break
in Corrie or a big movie.   Analysis would also make separate circuits for
cheaper rate electricity redundant (a la economy 7).   So there could be
consumer advantages to this, and would be cheaper than a full
"smart" meter replacement programme.  However it occurs to me
that not only would it be possible for the data to reveal when the house
was occupied  & daily routine (daily wake-up / return, when TV watched
etc as well as holiday) but I'd hazard a guess when you had visitors,
possibly even the number of occupants in the house.  So while uploading
this data to see charts may be "fun" there are privacy and data
protection issues to consider.  Your mobile phone records probably reveal
as much about routine etc but I'd not considered Smart Metering as having
this sort of implication before or how much personal information may be
revealed.
2p
JonS




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