759 a Power System Use Case for Quantum Computing Optimally Partitioning a Large Network
759 a Power System Use Case for Quantum Computing Optimally Partitioning a Large Network
SUMMARY
Transient stability (TS) is the commonly used simulation platform for analyzing slow
electromechanical transients within a timeframe of around 10 seconds following a contingency
event and is arguably the most suitable method for studying very large, interconnected power
networks.
Near real-time dynamic security assessment (DSA) enables the computation of system stability
for current operating conditions as they occur and the entire DSA cycle must be completed
within a 10–15-minute timeframe. A common practice involves dividing the system into a study
area with detailed modeling and an external area as an equivalent model. A more accurate
method involves splitting the original system into subsystems that are solved concurrently. Yet,
even for smaller systems, the computing time required for partitioning is significantly large,
highlighting the need for more efficient computational methods for much larger systems.
Therefore, one strategy to increase the simulation speed is the distribution of computation
among several CPU-based servers or the utilization of GPUs.
Going beyond classical computer solutions, the concept of quantum computing has risen as a
groundbreaking technology for many challenges including power system problems.
Therefore, in this paper, the application of quantum computing to solve a selected power system
optimization problem will be presented. The discussion will include the comparison of classical
computers and quantum computers, the evolution of quantum computers through time, the
relevance of quantum computing for power system problems, leading technologies of quantum
computing and their progress, and the challenges associated with quantum computing.
Among different commercially available technologies, IBM has introduced the IBM quantum
experience (IQX) which provides anyone with the opportunity to experiment with a quantum
computer for free through a user interface. IBM provides qiskit which is a Python package used
for developing quantum algorithms, running experiments on real devices, and visualizing
results. In this paper, how to access an IBM quantum computer and understand qiskit and its
functions will be presented.
KEYWORD
Quantum computing, Power system, Network partitioning, IBM, Qiskit
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1. OVERVIEW
1.1. Introduction
Reliable operation and security of the power system have become a crucial task, due to the
highly nonlinear and complicated nature of the modern power system with inverter-based
resources, power electronic-based devices, and electric transportation. The analysis
determining whether the power system adheres to specific security and reliability criteria under
steady state and transient time frames is defined as dynamic security assessment (DSA). The
computation of the study area which involves the speed of computation and comprehensive and
accurate computation capabilities is a key component of DSA. Since the power system
continuously expands, the speed of computation has become a challenge. As a solution to this
issue, splitting the original network into subsystems and the distribution of subsystems among
different processors (multiple CPUs, GPUs, and hybrid GPU-CPU architecture) has gained
remarkable attention in the last couple of years. Yet, exploring other innovative approaches is
always worth a venture.
Meanwhile, inspecting quantum mechanisms to solve the limitation of classical computation
has attracted more and more attention in both academia and industry. But, quantum computing
to address power system challenges is yet to be explored.
Therefore, in this paper, an attempt is made to explain the field of QC and its capability of
solving optimal network splitting problem.
The structure of the paper is as follows. An overview of QC is presented in section 1. Then
several examples of QC in power systems are explained. In section 3, IBM QC services for the
public and how to access their real quantum devices are described. An example of applying QC
to solve an optimization problem (Max-cut problem) using an IBM real device and points of
formulating optimal network splitting method on a noisy quantum device is shown in section
4.
1.2. Quantum Computing
In this section, QC technology development, theory, quantum algorithms, leading technologies,
general applications, and challenges are described.
1.3. Quantum technology development
The idea of quantum computers initially gained the attention in 1980s owing to Richard
Feynman's views on the simulation of quantum effects, the mechanism of quantum algorithms,
and quantum computer functions [1],[2]. In later years, those views contributed to the
development of quantum algorithms including Deutsch–Jozsa, Shor, and Grover. In addition to
the theoretical growth of quantum computers, important milestones of the physical
implementation of quantum computers such as the development of the first commercial
quantum computer and the development of IBM cloud-accessible quantum sources are shown
in Figure 1.
1.4. Theory
The fundamental block or the basic unit of information in a classical computer is a Bit which
can take two possible values either 0 or 1 one at a time. In a quantum computer, the fundamental
block is a qubit, and from an abstract mathematical point of view, two possible states for a qubit
are state |0⟩ and |1⟩. The difference between bits and qubits is that a qubit can be in a state
other than |0⟩ or |1⟩. It is feasible to form linear combinations of states, called superpositions
[4].
|𝜓⟩ = 𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩ (1)
𝛼 and 𝛽 are complex numbers that determine the probability of having the quantum states |0⟩
or |1⟩, respectively. It means that if the state of the qubit is measured, the probability of state
|0⟩ and |1⟩ are found is |𝛼 2 | and |𝛽2 |, respectively[3].Visual representation of a qubit state
space is shown in Figure 2. Any state of a qubit corresponds to a point on the surface of the
Bloch sphere. Note that the information of a qubit state is through a measuring process, which
provides either |0⟩ or |1⟩ as the output depends on the probability |𝛼 2 | and |𝛽2 |.
In QC, there are 2 main concepts which are superposition and entanglement. As stated
previously, superposition is explained as the ability of a qubit to exist in many states at once
[5]. Entanglement refers to the correlation among two or more qubits. This property allows
separate quantum systems to become bound together so that their quantum state becomes a
single collective phenomenon rather than separate ones, and performing any manipulation on
one of them affects the state of the others. In other words, by measuring one entangled qubit,
the properties of its partners can be deduced without measuring. As the output of a quantum
computation is also superposition, obtaining the correct result will be a tricky task.
Material science
The characteristics of materials at the molecular and atomic level can be examined with high
accuracy. Therefore, by simulating and analyzing of properties of materials, innovative
materials with improved properties can be designed. Also, the optimal method of synthesizing
materials can be achieved using QC.
Cyber security:
One of the main concerns is the vulnerability of some encryption methods to QC. In contrast,
QC can be employed to develop more advanced and protected encryption. Another advantage
of QC is details of the security level of complex systems can be obtained through simulation
and texting with quantum computers.
Finance
In the field of finance, QC can be used to develop finance models, risk analysis, and optimize
portfolios. Even though conventional computers can perform such tasks, the time it takes is
much longer. It will lead financial institutes to make decisions with accurate data and to get
maximum profit.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
In machine learning, training machine models require a large set of data and computational
resources, using QC this process can be accelerated. Currently, researchers are interested in
quantum-assisted neural networks in terms of advancing the training and interference of neural
networks.
Pharmaceuticals
By modeling the characteristics of molecules and predicting their interaction with proteins in
the body, the potential of QC can be harnessed. It can lead to the development of new drugs
and better medical treatment.
Weather forecasting and climate modeling
QC can be employed to study natural phenomena such as the carbon cycle, global atmospheric
circulation, and oceanic circulation. Therefore, more accurate predictions of climate change
can be obtained. Also, actions that are required to be undertaken to mitigate severe climate
change scenarios can be decided based on such predictions.
Figure 3. Leading companies based on the physical structure of qubits and their number of qubits
1.8.Challenges
Despite all the advantages of quantum computers over classical computers, there are several
challenges associated with quantum computing. Additionally, the current state of QC is the era
of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) [13] computing, because qubits in the existing
devices are prone to errors, have short coherent times, and have a limited number of qubits.
a. The primary problem is its vulnerability which is reflected in several ways:
I. Quantum decoherence which is described as the degradation of the information in
a qubit as it interacts with the environment. During the calculation phase of a
quantum calculation, a slight disturbance in the environment (ex: electromagnetic
interference, imperfections in the hardware, and temperature fluctuations) can
cause the quantum computation to collapse [14].
II. Error correction in quantum computing is significantly more challenging compared
to classical computing as quantum computers are more volatile and difficult to
control.[15].
b. A lack of expert knowledge coupled with pessimistic views on QC due to extensive
technical challenges is a prominent barrier to quantum computing growth [16]. This may
have discouraged some researchers from being involved in QC disciplines[17].
Step 1: To find a solution to this problem on a quantum computer, the first step is the derivation
of the objective function 𝐶 (𝑥) based on the problem definition.
𝐶 (𝑥) = ∑ 𝑤𝑖,𝑗 𝑥𝑖 ( 1 − 𝑥𝑗 ) (2)
𝑖,𝑗=1
Step 2: Then the objective function is to be reformulated as a Quantum Unconstrained Binary
Optimization (QUBO) problem (see eqn 3 and 4). QUBO is a mathematical formulation used
to solve combinatorial optimization problems by leveraging quantum computing. In QUBO,
the objective function is formulated in binary variables (0/1).
𝐶 (𝑥) = ∑ 𝑥𝑖 𝑄𝑖,𝑗 𝑥𝑗 + ∑ 𝜇𝑖 𝑥𝑖 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝜇𝑖 = ∑ 𝑤𝑖,𝑗 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑄𝑖𝑗 = −𝑤𝑖,𝑗 (3)
𝑖,𝑗=1 𝑖=1 𝑗=1
𝐶 (𝑥) = 𝑥 𝑇 𝑄𝑥 + 𝜇𝑇 𝑥 (4)
Step 3: Next classical inputs should be mapped to a quantum problem. To do that, the problem
is formulated as Hamiltonian problem. A classical Hamiltonian (an operator or matrix) is a
mathematical description of some physical system in terms of its energies and it returns the
energy for a particular state of a system. In gate-based quantum technologies named IBM, and
Google, Hamiltonian is utilized to guide the evolution of the quantum state of qubits toward the
solution.
𝐻𝐶 |𝑥⟩ is the Hamiltonian operator that encodes the cost function, 𝐶(𝑥) (see eqn (5)). It encodes
the cost in a manner such that the minimum expectation value of the operator corresponds to
the maximum number of edges between the nodes in two different groups. The ground state of
the Hamiltonian corresponds to the optimal solution of the optimization problem.
𝐻𝐶 |𝑥⟩ = 𝐶(𝑥)|𝑥⟩ (5)
As shown in eqn (6), each of the optimization variables is mapped into a qubit (to a spin
variable, 𝑧𝑖 ). Then spin operators are promoted to Pauli operators (𝑍𝑖 ).
(1 − 𝑧𝑖 )
𝑥𝑖 = , 𝑧𝑖 ∈ {−1,1} (6)
2
1 1 𝑄𝑖,𝑗 𝜇𝑖
𝐻𝐶 = ∑ 𝑄𝑖,𝑗 𝑍𝑖 𝑍𝑗 − ∑ (𝜇𝑖 + ∑ 𝑄𝑖,𝑗 ) 𝑍𝑖 + ( ∑ + ∑ ) (7)
4 2 4 2
𝑖,𝑗=1 𝑖=1 𝑗=1 𝑖,𝑗=1 𝑖=1
Step 4: The next step is to solve the above Hamiltonian in a quantum computer using a QAOA
circuit.
Step 5: Then optimization of the QAOA parameters using a classical optimizer is performed.
Step 6: Next, the solution by running the QAOA circuit with optimal parameters is obtained.
Further explaining steps 4, 5, and 6, a parametrized quantum state is repeatedly prepared and
measured on a quantum computer to estimate its average energy. Then, a classical optimizer,
running in a classical computer, uses such information to decide on the new parameters that are
then provided to the quantum computer. This process is iterated until certain convergence
criteria are met.
Step 7: Finally, the measurement of the qubits is done and the histogram is plotted (see Figure
5). For this example it shows that 00001 and 11110 stand out, which is correct. There are two
solutions because the labeling of the two partitions with '0' or '1' is arbitrary. The results are
mapped into the classical format which is shown in Figure 6.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, an overview of quantum computing is presented. A use case that describes how
to harness the potential of QC for the power system network splitting method is described.
A few conclusions that are derived based on the findings are mentioned below.
Network splitting is an NP-hard problem. But as this is the NISQ era, obtaining quantum
advantage for splitting a large power network will be difficult. For large-scale power systems,
a large number of qubits are required. With the increase of qubits, the error rate also further
increases, which may influence the outcome. Also, it will be inevitable to adopt effective error
strategies for error correction.
However, the commercially available technologies (IBM, D-wave, Google) provide QC
services (platforms, software packages) for researchers to experiment on real quantum devices.
Unfortunately, the waiting time to submit a job to a public IBM real quantum is considerably
high (minimum of 7 hours).
Furthermore, selecting a suitable quantum approach (gate-based technology or quantum
annealing) for optimal network partitioning problems is an open discussion. In terms of the
availability of resources (software packages, tutorials, examples, and courses), and the
navigability of the platform, IBM can be considered as the leading technology. But, in the
literature, the approach the researchers acquired is quantum annealing with D-wave technology.
Table 2 shows the existing literature on grid partitioning based on the graph theory method and
remarks.
Table 1
Literature Technology Remarks
[28] • The D-Wave 2X machine • Test case: They have mentioned that
• 1095 qubits large graphs in the Graph Partitioning
• It is able to solve graphs of Archive are used.
limited size (⁓ 45 nodes)
[22] • The Advantage quantum • Test case: PEGASE 89-bus system
computer of D-wave • The proposed method is compared with
technology the spectral clustering (classical
• 5000+ qubits algorithms ) and quantum annealing
method proposed in [28] .
• It says this method shows good
robustness compared to spectral
clustering and the time cost is 53% that
of the method proposed in [28].
References