A technological overview of the German roll-out

This talk will give an overview on the technology, the laws and the technical guidelines of the smartMeter roll-out in Germany.

SmartMeter are an ongoing topic in many countries. Sometimes the roll-out is driven by companies, sometimes by laws. Implementation fails, security nightmares and privacy issues have been covered even by the lamestream media. The next big roll-out will happen in Germany. This talk will give an overview of the planed roll-out and the laws and technical guidelines.

The “Energiewirtschaftsgesetz” (ENWG) was renewed in 2005 and amended in the following years to reflect aspects like smart grids and renewable energy sources. It also covers the energy directives. The important aspect is that it makes the roll-out a law.

In charge of the roll-out is the “Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie” (BMWi) which delegates the task of defining the technical details to the “Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik” (BSI). The BSI therefore is in the process of developing a so-called protection profile (PP) (or common criteria) for smart meter gateways and security module used in a smart meter. The BSI also develops a technical guideline (TR 03109) which describes how the communication related details of whole smart meter infrastructure have to be implemented to provide security and interoperability.

This talk will present the different roles defined by the TR and PP. The rights and duties of the different roles in the model will be presented. The cryptographic mechanisms that will be used to secure the communication will be shown. Further the additional services that are planned to be supported and the use cases that are defined for the smart metering system will be explained.