Call for Papers

Workshop on
Privacy Enhancing Technologies and Security Solutions for the Smart Grid User Domain (PRETSELS)

September 21-22, Salzburg, Austria

The PRETSELS workshop is paired with the EURASIP Journal on Information Security, Special Issue on Practicable Privacy Enhancing Technologies and Security Solutions for the Smart Grid User Domain (see Special Issue CfP). All accepted journal papers are eligible to be presented at the workshop. The three special issue papers with the best review rating will be eligible to a monetary grant, i.e., their open access fees will be paid, and their respective presenting author receives a travel grant (for details, please see grants).
It is also possible to submit position papers (independent of the special issue) to the workshop. These should be 4-6 pages (same format as special issue) and should present discussion points for the workshop.

SCOPE

Intelligent energy networks, often termed “Smart Grids”, introduce information and communication technologies in traditional energy grids, to enable the collection of fine-grained monitoring data and to provide bi-directional communication. This enables a variety of new use-cases, such as the widespread integration of renewable energy sources, smart charging of electric vehicles, demand response management, real-time energy pricing and smart home (energy) management. However, the fine-grained, and sometimes personal data made available in this way has led to privacy concerns and the possibility of controlling in-home appliances remotely has led to security concerns. A large number of recent contributions propose the use of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and applied cryptography, such as secure signal processing, aggregation through homomorphic encryption, or differential privacy, to address these concerns and to strike a balance between the functionality needed in smart grids and the consumer requirements for security and privacy. However, apart from off-the-shelf security methods and simple anonymization and pseudonymization for privacy, none of these technologies has been widely adopted for real world use yet.

PRETSELS seeks paper submissions from academia, industry, and government institutions presenting novel research on all theoretical and practical aspects of smart grid security and privacy, including design, analysis, experimentation, and fielded systems. We particularly invite contributions that deal with deploying PETs and security methods in the real world or suggest new method that achieve real-world applicability, including acceptance through the consumer.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Data protection and privacy
  • Trust and assurance
  • Risk and threat analysis
  • Cloud computing and smart grids
  • Privacy-preserving Smart Metering
  • Privacy and Security for Consumer Energy Management Systems (CEMS) and Smart Homes
  • Privacy Enhancing Technologies for Electric Mobility
  • Usable Security and User Acceptance of Security Methods in the Smart Grid User Domain
  • Privacy and Security in Demand Response Management and other Smart Grid Use Cases

LOCATION

The workshop will be held at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Puch near Salzburg. The city of Salzburg can be reached by public transport within 15 minutes from the workshop location. Tourist information may be found at the official Salzburg travel guide. Additional information on travel and accomodation will be made available on our workshop page at http://www.en-trust.at/pretsels/ in due time.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES:

EXTENDED Submission deadline (for Special Issue Papers to be presented at workshop): July 15 2015
EXTENDED Submission deadline (for Workshop Position Papers): July 15, 2015
Acceptance notification: August 31, 2015
Workshop: September 21-22, 2015

Extended special issue submission deadline: October 15, 2015 (The submission deadline for the special issue is on October 15, i.e., about one month after the workshop, which will allow for writing and submitting “spontaneous” papers inspired by the workshop to the special issue.)

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

General chairs: Dominik Engel (JRC), Zekeriya Erkin (TU Delft)
Local organizing chair: Andreas Unterweger (JRC)
Program chairs: Günther Eibl (JRC), Andreas Unterweger (JRC)

If you have questions, please send them to pretsels <at> en-trust <dot> at.