As smart grids are increasingly deployed around the world, consumers, design engineers and power companies are discussing how smart grids will transform the entire energy industry. The smart grid allows power companies to access meter data without having to send people to the site to record them, saving money and costs. Power companies, power plants and consumers are now looking for more environmentally friendly alternative fuels.

The new business model encourages the reduction of peak demand by reducing energy consumption through incentives, such as time-sharing pricing. Decentralized energy sources, such as electric vehicles and various forms of solar and wind power, support peak demand through renewable and available resources. The progress of these technologies will also lead to greater wisdom in power grid data analysis. With smart grids, power companies read electric meter from one or more times a month to three to 96 times a day. All the information generated by smart energy meter provides power companies with an opportunity to understand more about electricity patterns, power waste and other consumer behavior.

But in the final analysis, smart electric meter and grid management alone can not ensure the success of smart grid. If we want to fully play the advantage of the technology, smart grid design must focus on energy metering and security.

Unfortunately, today's industry is placing a lot of emphasis on the future management of smart grid technology and its communications architecture, and it's easy to forget that energy metering and security issues are critical to the success of the system. After all, power management-related networks must not only measure their key components, but also protect the valuable infrastructure of transmission components.

Grid safety has not yet received due attention.
Smart grid also requires year-round security. Most users, even industrial and power companies, underestimate the importance of smart grids. Smart grid endpoints, such as smart energy meter, industrial motors, consumer electronics, and widely distributed automation devices, consume and control electricity. At the same time, smart grid operators make full use of the "smart" network to correct power factor, optimize voltage, locate faults accurately and reduce maintenance time to ensure normal operation time, so the application of grid connection devices continues to increase.
Threats such as network attacks, Internet Protocol (IP) theft, and disruption of productivity continue to occur in smart grids and industrial control systems. Whether it's a simple household clothing dryer or an advanced decentralized industrial center, the only way to prevent these serious threats is to optimize the full security of the smart grid to ensure maximum operating time. Unfortunately, in many cases, users are not fully aware of the seriousness of the security risks, only minimal security measures. In a conversation with an expert at the power company, he told me that "barbed wire, padlock and high voltage are the only protective measures" in the company's substations. Other knowledgeable operators believe in hardware inherent security measures, but fail to realize that the threat posed by network attacks through software is even more serious.

Smart grid can help people understand their habits of using electricity.
Power grid security has far-reaching implications because potential security vulnerabilities occur at all stages of equipment from purchase to electric meter manufacture, from operation to service. The most effective security solutions are hardware and software to ensure the safety of the entire product life cycle.
When purchasing energy meter and products that operate on smart grids, buyers must ensure that pipes for silicon and other critical computing components are reliable to avoid counterfeiting. Because in the manufacturing process, security authentication technology prevents co-vendors, such as manufacturing contractors, from stealing keys and then using them to steal power or infect the grid with viruses. When used in the field, secure storage of keys and multi-layer encryption protect data through communication pipes, secure boot loaders prevent viruses and malicious software. Loading to the system, hardware technology to monitor physical security, able to respond to tampering incidents. Devices and sensors that are not under continuous monitoring require such comprehensive safety protection.
The industry provides complete security product solutions, designs the most effective security measures and integrates them into the system or grid itself to meet the security needs of smart grid. These components integrate basic multi-layer security authentication methods, including Split Keys, asymmetric encryption, secure boot loader, and various physical tamper protection methods.