Capturing Energy Meter Data over Secured Power Line

The following paper describes the technological background necessary for automated data collection from any energy meter installed on the client's side of the electrical distribution chain. We focuse on standardized Power Line technologies such as Power Line Communication (PLC), Broadband Power Line (BPL) and Home-Plug that may work on its own or provide the base for upper level communication suites such as TCP/IP. They might be a high-efficient solution to the automation of energy data capture for both home and corporation usage. Since energy data represent a highly- sensitive bucket of data, both hardware and software solutions need to be strongly protected. The paper outlines the steps in hardware implementation of the AES cryptographic algorithm as well as its use in overall automatic measurement system.