Solving DC Power Flow Problems Using Quantum and Hybrid algorithms

Abstract: Power flow calculation plays an important role in planning, operation, and control of the power system. The quantum HHL algorithm can achieve theoretical exponential speedup over classical algorithms on DC power flow calculation. Since the qubit resources in the Noisy Intermediate-scale Quantum (NISQ) era are limited, it is important to discuss the performance considering this limitation. The coefficient matrix of the linear systems of equations in DC power flow problems cannot be represented perfectly by finite binary number strings, which leads to imperfect phase estimation. This work is carried out under the assumption of imperfect phase estimation. The performance of the HHL algorithm is systematically investigated with different accuracy and redundant qubits. In order to further reduce the required qubit resources, a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm is proposed. By comparing errors of the HHL and hybrid algorithms in the DC power flow calculation of the IEEE 5-bus test system, it is found that the hybrid algorithm can achieve comparable precision with fewer qubits than HHL by increasing the number of phase estimation modules, which may make the hybrid algorithm a feasible route in the NISQ era.