Quantum algorithms for N-1 security in power grids

Abstract

In recent years, the supply and demand of electricity has significantly increased. As a result, the interconnecting grid infrastructure has required (and will continue to require) further expansion, while allowing for rapid resolution of unforeseen failures. Energy grid operators strive for networks that satisfy different levels of security requirements. In the case of N-1 security for medium voltage networks, the goal is to ensure the continued provision of electricity in the event of a single-link failure. However, the process of determining if networks are N-1 secure is known to scale polynomially in the network size. This poses restrictions if we increase our demand of the network. In that case, more computationally hard cases will occur in practice and the computation time also increases significantly. In this work, we explore the potential of quantum computers to provide a more scalable solution. In particular, we consider gate-based quantum computing, quantum annealing, and photonic quantum computing.