No I don't have a link, although I did look for the official announcement on the DESNZ site.

I'm a member of the SEC (Smart Energy Code), so I've received a copy of a letter by email.

I'll chase this up and ask if the content can be made public.

Posted by: @iancalderbank

↑

@transparent interesting. do you have a link? I couldn't find it.  Architecting this kind of technology is exactly what I do professionally, but never been able to break into the govt side as a closed shop operates.

Maybe you should apply for a job with Huawei, you would probably be able to get 'access' legal or otherwise then. 😋 

Posted by: @transparent

↑

I'll chase this up and ask if the content can be made public.

I found an announcement and a link here.

This is a direct link to a PDF of the letter (link downloads the pdf).

If neither of the above work, let me know and I will post the pdf itself (since it is already in the public domain, this shouldn't upset anyone).

@cathoderay thanks, I had a read. The network diagram is quite good - better than I was expecting. Very clear in explaining what the proposal is.

as far as I can tell from a quick bit of searching there seems to be at least one company already doing it: https://utilita.co.uk/smart-display. The implication is the connection of their IHD over the internet is maybe to their own systems, rather than to DCC's, but the architecture of how it uses the internet is likely to be near-as-dammit the same.

Utilita is not just an Energy Supplier.

Their Utilisoft system acts as a 'agent' and handles all the handshakes and encryption to pass data to/fro DCC.
As such it's used by other well-known Suppliers, such as OVO Energy.

If any company really does understand how to safely and correctly handle Smart Meter data being redirected across the internet, then it will be Utilita.

@transparent sounds like the problem is already solved then, they just need to get everyone using the same solution? then anyone with internet can have a smart meter?

Hmmm 🤨 

And would you like to guess why we didn't decide to use the internet in the first place, Ian?

Posted by: @transparent

↑

would you like to guess why we didn't decide to use the internet in the first place

(Yes, I know my name is not Ian ...) Were I cynical I'd guess that someone wanted to create a monopoly communication network and charge for it. 

estimated fixed revenue of nearly £2/3B.

And would you like to present us with a comparison of the cost of recovering the country if it were possible to launch a cyber attack on our Smart Meter network? 😟 

Posted by: @transparent

↑

And would you like to present us with a comparison of the cost of recovering the country if it were possible to launch a cyber attack on our Smart Meter network?

Whether the internet is used to transport the bulk of the messages is rather beside the point. Cyber attacks can take place on computers not connected to the internet, usually involving a human and a USB stick or compromising photos.

What is the fall-back for Smart Meters when (not if) the network is unavailable? As I understand it smart meters are currently not very interactive devices; they measure what we use but do not command loads to activate or deactivate. How would a cyber-attack on the smart meters cause the (current, pun intended) country to fall over?

Posted by: @transparent

↑

And would you like to present us with a comparison of the cost of recovering the country if it were possible to launch a cyber attack on our Smart Meter network?

that, and your previous comment , feel somewhat aggressively worded tbh.. I  hope thats not your intent?

I was simply pointing out that someone , whom you've just helfpully informed me is actually a good developer of metering systems, already has this "over the internet" problem solved.

so (from my outside the energy industry but inside the internet industry) point of view, it seems an obvious question to ask?

Posted by: @chickenbig

↑

Whether the internet is used to transport the bulk of the messages is rather beside the point. Cyber attacks can take place on computers not connected to the internet, usually involving a human and a USB stick or compromising photos.

indeed. Assuming that the Utilita designers have done their job properly (I have no reason to believe otherwise) , and there are industry standard authentication and encryption protocols between the wifi smart meter and the internet gateway, implemented and operated to best practice, the architecture doesn't seem to add significant risk to me. 

huge numbers of mission critical enterprises carrying extremely confidential , high value data run their systems over internet as a transport layer now. the transition happened over the last 5-10 years. this seems not fundamentally different.

Posted by: @chickenbig

↑

What is the fall-back for Smart Meters when (not if) the network is unavailable? As I understand it smart meters are currently not very interactive devices; they measure what we use but do not command loads to activate or deactivate. How would a cyber-attack on the smart meters cause the (current, pun intended) country to fall over?

yes that interests me too. do they just fail safe - keep on providing customer with electricity - if they lose the data link? do they locally cache the readings for later upload?