I have done some research of energy distribution companies in CEE and one of the side effect I would like to share with you, because it's valid in worldwide range.
Lot of distribution companies invested into smart meters. It is not about HW (meters) only. It's also about huge CAPEX and OPEX into connection of the meters into Operation center (network cost), Operation center systems for data processing, data analytics, data everything
There are two points of view how to return such investment:
- from commerce segment (industry, commerce buildings, Small medium enterprises, ...) - precise charge of Active/Apparent power and penalties for Reactive power, etc.
- from residents - there is not "clear" business case in such regulated market as is in CEE, when Active Power is one and only invoiced value (or every values derived from Active power) .... I can explain next time the huge difference between the measured and really consumed values.
Of course data is the another added value, in optimistic and in pessimistic point of view (Cambridge Analytica).
How the companies save their billions investment into Smart metering?
They use in common GSM/GPRS empty (unused) bandwidth, still operated by almost all mobile operators (clear profit generator).
You don't need more than 10MB per month of data stream from such Smart meters.
And here is the magic:
GPRS mostly used with standard SIM cards, which don't have encrypted communication between Smart meter and BTS (Base Transceiver Station)
then you need just your private BTS (max. 1000 Euro) to be ready to hijack SIM cards Credentials (plain text communication). Even with A5 (basic) encryption, you can take over control.
When you have Credentials from one SIM cards, you have whole network = same Credentials for all network. And this is a highway to hell.
This is the story about how to save huge investment by low cost communication technology.
All the companies have been informed about this kind of security issue.
Lot of distribution companies invested into smart meters. It is not about HW (meters) only. It's also about huge CAPEX and OPEX into connection of the meters into Operation center (network cost), Operation center systems for data processing, data analytics, data everything
There are two points of view how to return such investment:
- from commerce segment (industry, commerce buildings, Small medium enterprises, ...) - precise charge of Active/Apparent power and penalties for Reactive power, etc.
- from residents - there is not "clear" business case in such regulated market as is in CEE, when Active Power is one and only invoiced value (or every values derived from Active power) .... I can explain next time the huge difference between the measured and really consumed values.
Of course data is the another added value, in optimistic and in pessimistic point of view (Cambridge Analytica).
How the companies save their billions investment into Smart metering?
They use in common GSM/GPRS empty (unused) bandwidth, still operated by almost all mobile operators (clear profit generator).
You don't need more than 10MB per month of data stream from such Smart meters.
And here is the magic:
GPRS mostly used with standard SIM cards, which don't have encrypted communication between Smart meter and BTS (Base Transceiver Station)
then you need just your private BTS (max. 1000 Euro) to be ready to hijack SIM cards Credentials (plain text communication). Even with A5 (basic) encryption, you can take over control.
When you have Credentials from one SIM cards, you have whole network = same Credentials for all network. And this is a highway to hell.
This is the story about how to save huge investment by low cost communication technology.
All the companies have been informed about this kind of security issue.