Optimal demand-side management for joint privacy-cost optimization with energy storage

The smart meter (SM) privacy problem is addressed together with the cost of energy for the user. It is assumed that a storage device, e.g., an electrical battery, is available to the user, which can be utilized both to achieve privacy and to reduce the energy cost by modifying the energy consumption profile. Privacy is measured via the mean squared-error between the SM readings, which are reported to the utility provider (UP), and a target load; while time-of-use pricing is considered for energy cost calculation. The optimal trade-off between the achievable privacy and the energy cost is characterized by taking into account the limited capacity of the battery as well as the capability to sell energy to the UP. Extensive numerical simulations are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed strategy for different system settings.