The challenges to privacy and data protection posed by smart grids

The Third Energy Package (2009) encourages a long-term modernisation of electrical grids in Europe. Hence the European Commission considers a roll-out of the EU-wide regulatory framework for the next-generation grids, i.e. smart grids, including smart meters. Among all the promised benefits, this concept raises a number of privacy and data protection issues. The main aim of this introductory essay is to identify and briefly analyse them from the EU perspective. This paper forms a part of a broader research on privacy and data protection within smart grids