energies
Editorial
Application of Quantum Computing in Power Systems
Fang Gao * and Guojian Wu
Citation: Gao, F.; Wu, G. Application
of Quantum Computing in Power
Systems. Energies 2023, 16, 2240.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
en16052240
Received: 5 August 2022
Accepted: 11 September 2022
Published: 25 February 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Energies 2023, 16, 2240. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16052240
School of Electrical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
* Correspondence: fgao@gxu.edu.cn
1. Introduction
Due to continuous expansion, the current interconnected power system is the largest
and most complex man-made dynamic system on the planet. These bulk systems are highly
nonlinear, exhibiting multi-scale behavior in space and time. Moreover, the randomness
and uncertainty of power systems are becoming stronger due to the integration of renew-
able energy resources. The increasing complexity makes it more and more difficult to
analyze a series of related problems in power systems. Here, we provide some typical
examples. Transient stability assessment (TSA) is a key technology for securing today’s bulk
power networks, and the high degree of nonlinearity makes the transient stability analysis
of power systems increasingly difficult. Optimal power flow (OPF) is an important opti-
mization problem for the energy industry, and it is used for system planning, to determine
the price of the day-ahead market, and to effectively allocate power generation capacity
during the day. The power flow equation constraints make OPF problems nonconvex and
difficult to solve. Unit commitment (UC) is a very significant optimization problem in
power system dispatching, and it can be modelled as NP-hard mixed-integer nonlinear
programming. There are also other problems related to power system analysis, such as
economic dispatch, static stability, etc. Generally speaking, all of the abovementioned prob-
lems are becoming progressively more difficult for the traditional computing paradigm
due to the increasing scale and complexity of power systems. Researchers are trying to find
other and more effective computing paradigms to solve these multifaceted problems.
With the development of quantum hardware, quantum computation has started to
attract more and more attention as a promising computing paradigm. Algorithms such as
HHL, Shor’s factorization, and Grover search can be implemented on quantum hardware
to make use of quantum characteristics (i.e., superposition and entanglement) to achieve
quantum advantages. Large-scale error correction quantum computers can solve problems
that even the largest classical supercomputer cannot. However, in the noisy intermediate-
scale quantum (NISQ) era, due to the limitations of qubit resources (including but not
limited to the number of qubits and the depth of quantum circuits), it was difficult for the
quantum algorithms implemented on quantum hardware to be applied in practical industry
in a short time. Therefore, two other interesting types of algorithms have been proposed.
One is hybrid quantum–classical algorithms, which combine quantum computing with
classical computing to reduce the qubit resource requirements. The other is quantum-
inspired algorithms, which run on a classical computer and introduce quantum concepts
into classical algorithms. These two types of algorithms can also introduce potential
performance improvements. The development and application of the abovementioned
three kinds of quantum-related algorithms have attracted great attention and have found
application in many scenarios, including in power systems.
This Special Issue aims to explore novel quantum-related approaches to power system
problems such as economic dispatch, optimal power flow, unit commitment, transient
stability, and static stability. The approaches are based on the application of quantum
computing (QC) techniques (i.e., by employing quantum algorithms, quantum-inspired
algorithms, quantum reinforcement learning, or quantum neural networks). By exploring
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Energies 2023, 16, 2240 2 of 3

quantum-related strategies in power system problems, this Special Issue tries to show
what and how power systems benefit from QC. Since this Special Issue only recently
starting accepting submissions, no papers have been accepted as of the present moment,
but relevant studies have previously been published in this journal, and some of these
papers will be briefly described in the next section.

2. A Short Review of the Relevant Studies

As for the research on the application of quantum algorithms in power systems, Ahn
et al. [1] claim that quantum computing is a game-changing technology that affects modern
distributed energy resource (DER) systems and propose potential quantum attack defense
strategies such as post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD),
which can be applied to DER networks.
As for research on the application of hybrid quantum–classical algorithms in power
systems, Correa-Jullia et al. [2] explore the potential advantages of quantum support
vector machines (Q-SVMs) over traditional machine learning approaches. Q-SVMs are
quantum kernel methods and are suitable for classification tasks. The results show that the
performance of Q-SVMs is comparable to that of conventional machine learning models
and better than random forest (RF) and k-nearest neighbors (k-NN).
As for the research on the application of quantum-inspired algorithms in power
systems, the following two studies fall within this scope:
Fan et al. [3] combine the quantum evolutionary algorithm and the genetic algorithm to
solve regional integrated energy system planning problems under different load structure,
multi-cycle, and multi-scenario operation modes. Energy system planning is essentially
a complex multi-objective optimization problem. The concepts of qubits and quantum
superposition are borrowed to encode chromosomes in the quantum evolution algorithm.
Wang et al. [4] propose a short-term multi-load forecasting model based on quantum
weighted GRU (QWGRU) and multi-task learning frameworks. Compared to LSTM, GRU,
and single-task learning QWGRU models, the multi-task learning QWGRU model is more
effective in the multi-load forecasting of regional integrated energy systems. QWGRU
introduces quantum-weighted neurons into the classical GRU, making QWGRU have the
superposition property of quantum states and thus simulate the information processing
mechanism more sufficiently.

3. Conclusions
Due to the increasing scale and complexity of power systems, algorithms under the
traditional computing paradigm gradually suffer from insufficient performance. Under
the quantum computing paradigm, quantum computing techniques, including quantum
algorithms, hybrid quantum–classical algorithms, and quantum-inspired algorithms, are
increasingly being used for a range of highly nonlinear power system problems, and some
studies have shown quantum superiority over classical algorithms. Of course, there is
still room for improvement in the algorithms developed under the quantum computing
paradigm. It is difficult for quantum algorithms that require huge quantum resources
to be used in practical applications nowadays due to the limitations of the quantum
resources that are available in the NISQ era. As for hybrid quantum–classical algorithms,
the mapping between classical data and quantum data is usually the key step to be studied
and optimized. In addition, data-driven quantum machine learning and quantum neural
networks are also faced with the same problem of insufficient interpretability found in
traditional machine learning and traditional neural networks. Despite these problems,
the quantum computing paradigm will become an important complement to the classical
computing paradigm as research continues to deepen. Presumably, the application of
quantum computing in the power system will significantly enhance or improve the security,
stability, and efficiency of the power system.
Energies 2023, 16, 2240 3 of 3

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, F.G.; writing—original draft preparation, G.W.; writing—

review and editing, F.G.; funding acquisition, F.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published
version of the manuscript.
Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under
Grants 61720106009 and 61773359.
Acknowledgments: The Editors of this Special Issue are grateful to the publisher, MDPI, for the
invitation to act as Guest Editors of this Special Issue. All of the authors are thankful to the Editorial
Staff of Energies for their kind cooperation, patience, and committed engagement.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References
1. Ahn, J.; Kwon, H.Y.; Ahn, B.; Park, K.; Kim, T.; Lee, M.K.; Kim, J.; Chung, J. Toward Quantum Secured Distributed Energy
Resources: Adoption of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Energies 2022, 15, 714.
[CrossRef]
2. Correa-Jullia, C.; Cofre-Martel, S.; Martin, G.S.; Droguett, E.L.; Leite, G.N.P.; Costa, A. Exploring Quantum Machine Learning and
Feature Reduction Techniques for Wind Turbine Pitch Fault Detection. Energies 2022, 15, 2792. [CrossRef]
3. Fan, W.; Liu, Q.; Wang, M. Bi-Level Multi-Objective Optimization Scheduling for Evolutionary Algorithm. Energies 2021, 4, 4720.
4. Wang, S.; Zhang, Z. Short-term multiple load forecasting model of regional integrated energy system based on qwgru-mtl.
Energies 2021, 14, 6555. [CrossRef]

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