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Blockchain can improve data security in energy infrastructure

A new jointly produced publication of the German Energy Agency (dena) and ESMT Berlin details how blockchain technology can increase the data security of smart meters. The English-language publication builds on discussions held by international experts at the blockchain conference EventHorizon 2017.

Smart meters provide energy producers and end users with considerable benefits in improved data collection. Moreover, using decentralized technologies like blockchain, smart meters also create opportunities for peer-to-peer trading, empowering consumer autonomy and choice.

Yet, as some EventHorizon panelists charge, current international protocols for communication between energy suppliers, intelligent meters, and household appliances are insufficiently protected. Smart meters may thus become high-exposure gateways for hackers to exploit for sensitive customer data.

As a decentralized transaction protocol, blockchain has the potential to provide solutions to such vulnerabilities. But EventHorizon experts caution that currently available blockchains are still too slow. “This is changing,” said Christoph Burger, one of the report’s authors and ESMT’s expert in Blockchain. “Initiatives led by groups such as Energy Web Foundation as well as wider industry blockchain alliances such as Ethereum Enterprise Alliance or HyperLedger are developing more efficient blockchains.”

The publication entitled "Vulnerabilities in smart meter infrastructure - can blockchain provide a solution?" is available free of charge at http://bit.ly/2EHs1tC.

For more information about blockchain in the energy sector transition, please visit ESMT at https://execed.esmt.berlin/thought-leadership/activities-field-energy.

 

About ESMT Berlin

ESMT Berlin is a leading global business school with its campus in the heart of Berlin. Founded by 25 global companies, ESMT offers master, MBA, and PhD programs, as well as executive education on its campus in Berlin, in locations around the world, online, and in online blended format. Focusing on leadership, innovation, and analytics, its diverse faculty publishes outstanding research in top academic journals. Additionally, the international business school provides an interdisciplinary platform for discourse between politics, business, and academia. ESMT is a non-profit private institution of higher education with the right to grant PhDs and is accredited by AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS, and ZEvA. It is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion across all its activities and communities.