  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.
