  Fine-grained energy usage data collected by Smart Meters (SM) is one of the
key components of the smart grid (SG). While collection of this data enhances
efficiency and flexibility of SG, it also poses a serious threat to the privacy
of consumers. Through techniques such as nonintrusive appliance load monitoring
(NALM), this data can be used to identify the appliances being used, and hence
disclose the private life of the consumer. Various methods have been proposed
in the literature to preserve the consumer privacy. This paper focuses on load
shaping (LS) methods, which alters the consumption data by means of household
amenities in order to ensure privacy. An overview of the privacy protection
techniques, as well as heuristics of the LS methods, privacy measures, and
household amenities used for privacy protection are presented in order to
thoroughly analyze the effectiveness and applicability of these methods to
smart grid systems. Finally, possible research directions related to privacy
protection in smart grids are discussed.
