IEEE Digital Privacy Podcast: Episode 11

Linda Zeger A Conversation with Dr. Linda M. Zeger
Auroral LLC

Part of the IEEE Digital Privacy Podcast Series

Episode Transcript:

Brian Walker: Welcome to the IEEE Digital Privacy Podcast Series, an IEEE Digital Studio production. This podcast series features conversations with industry and academic leaders, as well as key stakeholders of digital privacy, in order to help advance solutions that support the privacy needs of individuals. This episode features Dr. Linda Zeger, founder and principal consultant of Auroral LLC. Linda shares insights on smart grid components data and how new technologies impact digital privacy in the electricity sector. Linda, thank you for taking time to contribute to the IEEE Digital Privacy Podcast Series. To get started, can you share a little information on your background and your current role?

Linda Zeger: Sure. My background is I have a Ph.D. in physics, and I've worked for a number of years in the communication industry and also in data analytics and AI, and so recently I put it all together and I'm working in the smart grid. My company Auroral LLC delivers advisory guidance and technical analysis on information aspects of the smart grid, and this involves a lot of guidance on use of data in artificial intelligence and other algorithms, as well as in communication networks.

Brian Walker: Okay, and so how did you first get involved with digital privacy?

Linda Zeger: Well, I guess I, you know, while it is not a main focus of my work I have done, some of the aspects are involved with cybersecurity and digital privacy. And so I joined some IEEE digital privacy initiatives and I think that that's what got me even more interested in it and sort of brought out some of the issues that I'm seeing every day.

Brian Walker: Right. So you mentioned digital privacy and cybersecurity. How do those two areas play together?

Linda Zeger: Well, cybersecurity encompasses a lot more than privacy, but privacy is one aspect of it, and cybersecurity is really important to privacy. Obviously, if, you know, a server or site or something is hacked, then privacy is compromised. And furthermore, at an individual level, particularly with electric data, consumers are interacting through their cell phones and through Wi-Fi and so they can, and they should, you know, use the maximum privacy, I'm sorry, the maximum-security protections that they can with their cell phone and Wi-Fi to secure their own privacy.

Brian Walker: Okay, and you also mentioned AI in your intro. So how do you see AI or machine learning impacting digital privacy?

Linda Zeger: Well, in some cases, it might be possible to learn information about individuals or groups from AI models if they are obtainable. In addition, AI can be used in ways to predict habits of people based on, say, their electricity data, if someone could get a hand on it. For example, if electricity usage data were obtained, it might be possible in a lot of cases with reasonable accuracy to predict when a person is in a home or building and when they're not.

Brian Walker: In the electrical sector, the smart grid, why do you see digital privacy being prioritized? And what's the importance of actually collecting the data?

Linda Zeger: So the data collection is really important for a number of reasons. I mean, traditionally, it's been collected for billing and to balance the grid. The grid supply needs to balance demand at every point in time and in every location in the grid. That balancing is even more challenging now that more and more renewables, energy like solar and wind, are coming online because they're less predictable. We don't always know when the sun is going to shine and when the wind is going to blow and so often in order to balance supply and demand, we need more granular information. In addition, a lot of data and information is needed both from buildings and sensors throughout the grid to maintain stability and security of the grid. The electric grid is really very different in terms of data from other uses in our life. There's data collected throughout time constantly, and that gives correlations over time and also there's correlations over space because there's data collected from you, your neighbor and other users on the same circuits and this spatial and time correlations mean information can be inferred about a house or building from other points near that house or building, as well as from other points in time.

Brian Walker: So how do these data collection efforts benefit end users?

Linda Zeger: Yes, the first is it gives the end user there a reliable, secure and stable electricity grid. If none of this data was collected, the electricity would be very unreliable. There'd be more outages. It also ultimately can lower the cost of the bills because less expensive sources also can be used, and electricity can be used at less expensive times. That's one of the things that a number of states, particularly California and others, are starting to do going forward is to inform consumers when different prices are in, in other words, when it's cheaper to use electricity. For example, in California, when the sun is shining during the day, it can be less expensive to use electricity. So that information is also useful to customers in lowering their bills. To everybody, if we use electricity more when renewables are available, then we're reducing greenhouse gas emissions so that benefits everybody.

Brian Walker: You said you got involved with the IEEE Digital Privacy Initiative. Can you tell a little bit about what you do there and also how you see that initiative helping to advance the technology space?

Linda Zeger: Right. So we do a number of activities. We've had podcasts explaining, for example, I did one a little over a year ago on EV charging data. We've also had a panel at the IEEE PES general meeting talking about digital privacy in the electric grid. We also are writing papers and a lot of this is to raise awareness. And we're also trying, in addition, to influence, to encourage more use of privacy, to get involved with other organizations. I know there's interaction with standards organizations. We're also trying to have interaction with other organizations as well to encourage greater use and attention of privacy methods.

Brian Walker: Linda, thank you again for taking time to speak with us today. Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share with our listeners?

Linda Zeger: Yeah, I guess the final thought is that, you know, everybody really does benefit from use of their electricity data in terms of having a secure, reliable electric grid at lower cost, reduced greenhouse gas emissions. And, you know, there has been a lot of attention and research to privacy issues and to privacy solutions that's growing. I think the industry is aware of the issues we discussed here and it is good for people to continue to prioritize digital privacy in this domain. And individual consumers, to the extent they can keep their own devices secure in their homes and businesses, can help contribute to privacy as well.

Brian Walker: Thank you for listening to our interview with Linda Zeger. To learn more about the IEEE Digital Privacy Initiative, please visit our web portal at digitalprivacy.ieee.org.