## 1 Introduction  
Smart Grid power systems require highly efficient and reliable energy generation, distribution, and consumption. Highly developed information and communications technology (ICT) is utilized to improve the control and optimization of the performance of power distribution systems.  
To increase energy generation, various dispersed power sources such as photovoltaic, wind power and fuel cells are incorporated in power supply systems. These dispersed power sources are not always guaranteed to generate high-quality power. For example, the generation rate of photovoltaic generating power is weather dependent. Usually, DC power from the dispersed sources is inverted to AC power, whose quality might be lower than the commercial power generated at power station, to be delivered through the commercial power network. Conversely, some loads do not necessarily require high-quality power. For example, charging batteries does not require high-quality power. Hence, the balance between the loads and the generated powers in the system is one of the important factors for effective power consumption.  
To realize these needs, power packetization and its routing have been proposed for use as in-home power transfer systems [1, 2, 3, 4]. In communication networks, the packet delivers information. A _power packet_ delivers electric power together with an information tag superimposed on its voltage waveform in the power network. It enables us to deliver the power to the destination load while balancing the power quality with the load demand. The concept of power packetization in a power distribution line was proposed in [5]. In the Cloud Computing context, energy dispatched as a pulse, called an energy packet, is also proposed as means to provide energy on demand to Cloud Computing servers [6], in a manner similar to power packetization. In [5, 6], to attach the information tag to the electric power, the information transmission lines were set up separately from the power distribution lines, or the methods were not mentioned explicitly. In the system proposed in this study, the power packet [1, 2, 3, 4] consists of the power payload and the information tags, _i.e._, the information tags are physically added to the electric power. The payload is the power supplied by the selected power sources. The distribution control of the power packet flow is realized by reading the information tag contained in the power packets.  
In this study, the power packet transfer property is investigated for a conventional indoor power line channel composed of a VVF (Vinyl insulation, Vinyl sheath, Flat) electrical cable, which is widely used for indoor power lines. The dispatch of a sufficient amount of power without error is an essential requirement in the design of the power packet system. For this purpose, we estimate individually the arrival power ratio of the consumed power at the destination load passing through the power line channel for payload, and the bit error rate (BER) of the information signal.  
This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the concept of power packet and its routing is presented. In Section 3, the power line channel used here is explained in detail. In Sections 4 and 5, the arrival power ratio and the BER are investigated, respectively. Finally, in Section 6, we present our conclusions and discuss the implementation of the power packet.