An Energy Packet Switch for Digital Power Grids

Abstract: We propose the design and electrical description of an energy packet switch for forwarding and delivery of energy in digital power grids in this paper. The proposed switch may receive energy from one or multiple power sources in the form of energy packets, store them and aggregate the contained energy, and forward the accumulated energy to requesting loads connected to one or multiple output ports of the switch. Energy packets are discrete amounts of energy that are associated in- or out-of-band with an address and other metadata. Loads receive these discrete amounts of finely-controlled energy rather than discretionary amounts after. The control and management of the proposed switch are based on a request-grant protocol. Using energy packets helps to manage the delivery of power in a reliable, robust, and function form that may enable features not yet available in the present power grid. The switch, as any element of a digital grid, uses a data network for the transmission of these requests and grants. The energy packet switch may be the centerpiece for creating infrastructure in the realization of the digital power grid. The design of the energy packet switch is based on shared supercapacitors to shape and manage discretization of energy. We introduce the design and analysis of the electrical properties of the proposed switch and describe the procedure used in the switch to determine the amount of energy transmitted to requesting loads.