Quantum computing solutions for optimisation problems in Energy Grids

Nowadays, most people and businesses rely on a regular and reliable supply of energy for their day-to-day activities, making the energy grid a critical infrastructure for the country. Building and maintaining grid connections is a costly exercise: building an electric grid can cost up to £1.5m per km of line - costs that are ultimately borne by either the taxpayer or the energy consumer.

Being able to determine the optimal parameters for the network's infrastructure can therefore lead to significant cost savings, as well as potentially improving the network's resilience against vulnerabilities such as extreme weather events.

The move towards Net Zero is also affecting the requirements on the power grid. Where once the network only needed to focus on a small number of generators with similar performance characteristics, it is now required to connect millions of smaller renewable generators, whose energy output is highly variable and often unpredictable.

The increased complexity of the system translates into an exponential increase in the running time of the algorithms that have been traditionally used to optimise the grid, making them effectively no longer fit for purpose.

It has long been suggested, though, that quantum computing has the potential to answer these sort of optimisation questions more efficiently than classical computers. Until recently, this was only believed possible in the longer term (requiring full-scale quantum hardware) but recent innovations by Phasecraft have changed this perspective, showing that even in the near term (when quantum computers are expected to be small-scale and noisy) there is the potential for quantum algorithms to outperform classical ones.

Building on the first Phase of this project, we will continue to work with the SuperGen Energy Networks Hub and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to develop a quantum software solution to this problem, initially addressing proof-of-principle instances. This will ultimately facilitate future network planning and accelerate the deployment of renewables (both key goals within the _Powering Up Britain_ strategy published earlier in 2023).