IEEE Electrification - September 2020 - 88

distribution systems to cyberthreats when there is a lack
of proper security management. The imminent incidents
that intrude upon cybersystems may even bring about catastrophic physical impacts on the smart grid. The threat of
cybersecurity attacks and privacy invasions can hamper
participants' willingness to share their information
for demand response and restrict the sustainable
-development of advanced control
and communication applications
for making the proliferation of
renewable energy a reality. Privacy
violations could occur during data
collection and processing, even in
the absence of an individual's sensitive information because of the
growing use of powerful data-mining algorithms. An individual's
energy consumption data collected
by smart meters are recognized
as confidential and sensitive consumer information. By applying
nonintrusive load-monitoring
techniques, a potential adversary
can infer a customer's daily routines or cost considerations based
on their energy usage profiles,
which would result in a severe
invasion of customer privacy.
Accordingly, a smart grid requires
sophisticated network protection
tools and solutions that can cope with the massive adoption of communication, computation, and control technologies in a cybersecure system.
Emerging software-defined networking (SDN) technologies are effective in achieving cybersecure communications. Conceptually, SDN is a novel communication
paradigm that makes the control of a communication network globally visible and directly programmable. In particular, SDN breaks the conventional vertical integration of
data and control planes by transferring the network control logic from switches to a logically centralized controller
(i.e., an SDN controller). The global visibility and runtime
programmability enabled by SDN technologies introduces
unprecedented capabilities to guard a communication
network adequately against cyberincidents. Figure 8
depicts the SDN-based communication and control architecture for a smart grid hosting IoT-enabled connections
and functions. The SDN controller acts as an interface
between networking devices and grid-wide applications.
By taking full advantage of SDN technologies, an adaptive
and holistic solution for cybersecurity enhancement can
be developed that can fully address the urgent cybersecurity concerns associated with communications.
Blockchain technology is another great advancement in
the world of cybersecurity communications. Based on a set
of communication and consensus protocols, blockchain is

a distributed ledger in which transactions are defined by
interlinked, cryptographically signed, and time-stamped
blocks for ensuring ledger integrity. Using distributed consensus protocols, blockchain techniques enable a transaction to be realized and validated in a mutually distrusted
network without third-party interventions. Thus, blockchain offers a viable solution to handling the cybersecurity
and mutual trust issues associated with
the wide participations of customers in
demand-response programs, principally
of the transactive energy sort. Conventionally, each customer acting as a
transacting agent maintains a local
database for recording local operating
states, while the respective master controller (MC) communicates with the distribution system operator (DSO) for
validating the recorded data, as demonstrated in Figure 9(a). This separately
maintained data storage and management scheme can hardly support the
desired scalability and trustworthiness
of transactive energy management.
In Figure 9(b), the four transacting
agents use blockchain to collectively
maintain a shared database in a decentralized manner that does not require a
trusted central intermediary. The new
operating states are packaged into
additional data blocks at the end of the
blockchain by a chosen miner (e.g., transacting agent 1
in this case). Once recorded in blockchain, these operating states can no longer be altered because all four agents
have reached a consensus. Each agent keeps a copy of the
blockchain in its local settings for recording and reading
the local operating states. Specifically, regarding customer
privacy, one effective way to tackle privacy leakage from
the smart meters is the battery-based load-hiding method, where a small-size battery is installed and regulated
for each household for perturbing the real energy-usage
profile by charging/discharging.

Using distributed
consensus protocols,
blockchain
techniques enable
a transaction to
be realized and
validated in a
mutually distrusted
network without
third-party
interventions.

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / SEPTEMBER 2020

Impact of the Proliferation of EVs
Globally, EVs are recognized as an indispensable part of the
smart grid and could have a profound impact on the implementation of renewable energy in distribution power systems. The massive deployment of EVs would bring forth
additional advanced energy-efficient technologies, augment
energy security, and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Further, it would foster climate change initiatives,
accelerate economic development, and introduce additional
domestic jobs by deploying innovative technologies in mass
transportation, hasten the adoption of renewable and variable energy, and promote public health by improving local
air quality. Although EV sales are steadily increasing, they
still represent a small share of the auto market. As of March

IEEE Electrification - September 2020

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