Energy packets enabling the energy internet

There has been considerable interest in the scientific community in the nature of the future power system. Having distributed resources, energy storage, and plug-and-play capability makes the future power system analogous to a computer network and some refer to this future power system as the “energy internet”. Ironically, concerns of the future power system, such as reliability, survivability, availability, and security also parallel those of computer networks. This paper introduces a circuit whereby power can be sent in “energy packets” much like information is routed in a computer network. This opens up the possibility of applying information network theory, such as path diversity, packet acknowledgement, resource management, ad hoc network routing, network topology control, network security, etc. to the power system. Simulation examples and laboratory measurements validate the fundamental circuit. Implications for future power networks are discussed.