Tutorial V: Privacy and security augmented smart grid and microgrid optimization and communications

The energy sector worldwide has embarked on a transformational process to modernize the over-a-century-old power grid under an umbrella term of the Smart Grid (SG). This vast infrastructural upgrade and operational change involves integration of a variety of advanced digital computing, communications and industrial control technologies. The overarching goal of this tutorial is to present the emerging communications optimization problems and formulations within the smart grid/microgrid research areas in light of the security and privacy perspectives and constraints. The existing literature has mostly taken a silo approach to the communications optimization and security/privacy separately. We introduce the Smart Grid paradigm, extend it with the conceptualization of the microgrids as a new low-voltage distribution system enhanced with distributed generation, renewables, and storage. We provide optimization formulations for various problems in microgrid scheduling, communications, data collection, and control, including optimization of deployment, power consumption, integration of distributed energy sources with a particular attention given to the security and privacy dimensions and aspects.