Balancing privacy and data access: an interdisciplinary approach to markets for differentially-private smart meter data

Abstract

Access to high-resolution smart meter data has many operational benefits for energy suppliers, network operators, and the energy system as a whole. However, access also raises privacy concerns, hindering the adoption of smart meters and the sharing of high-resolution smart meter data. This thesis addresses this dilemma by employing an interdisciplinary approach to designing a privacy-preserving data market mechanism for smart meter data as a means of balancing privacy and data access. The first research direction determines the design criteria of a data market for smart meter data. Specifically, we map the data dependence of benefits as well as the potential privacy infringements and risks associated with smart meter data. Data resolution, both spatial and temporal play a significant role in determining both benefits and privacy risks. We investigate consumers’ privacy concerns and their willingness-to-pay/accept for anonymisation through a novel survey and discrete choice experiment. Significant heterogeneity and endowment effects are observed with information asymmetries leading to depressed valuations for privacy protection. Finally, we assess the suitability of different privacy-preserving techniques for smart meter data, finding differential privacy to be a flexible, transparent, and easily integrated mechanism for ensuring privacy while allowing access to data. The second research direction develops a novel data market framework, using the design criteria determined in the first. A novel data valuation mechanism is developed based on the Wasserstein distance, which embodies the drivers of smart meter data value, including the privacy-utility trade-off induced by differential privacy. This is integrated into a novel procurement mechanism, developed using incentive mechanism design theory, which can model data buyers’ and consumers’ preferences, while preserving privacy. A joint energy and market is developed, which through case studies is shown to be a viable proposition to balance privacy and access to smart meter data, given our estimations of consumers’ willingness-to-accept.