Modern energy systems are increasingly shifting towards renewable and decentralized energy sources. End users and their devices are directly integrated into these systems, which increases their complexity and reduces the ability to monitor and control energy production. A key solution for maintaining the balance of energy systems at all times is demand-side flexibility, which enables network users to adjust their consumption and production patterns based on the current state of the system. Effective management and control are supported by smart grids and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
Demand-side flexibility management systems involve end users and sensitive data that is accessed by other system entities. In this master's thesis, we address the security requirements of such systems using the concepts of self-sovereign identity (SSI). SSI shifts the creation and management of digital identity towards the user, granting them full control over their identity and personal data.
The thesis begins by reviewing the security aspects of IoT systems and demand-side flexibility management. An overview of SSI concepts follows this. Based on defined use cases, we determine the requirements for integrating SSI technology into a demand-side flexibility management system. Subsequently, a prototype implementation of SSI technology is developed and integrated, in the form of a security module, with an existing IoT device management system. This integration includes the use of X.509 digital certificates and the TLS protocol. The solution is evaluated against the requirements defined in the initial stages.
The result of the thesis is a scalable system in which identity management, secure communication, trust establishment, authorization to access system resources, and access control based on verifiable credentials are enabled through the use of SSI concepts.
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